Econet Moves To Prevent Airtime Leakage

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According to an article in NewsDay, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has threatened to disconnect Econet’s value-added services.

The article quotes a letter from Econet Wireless, addressed to their VAS customers (emphasis ours).

In light of the above and the official confirmed threat from the regulator to disconnect all VAS services, Econet has made a pro-active decision to create a separate Dedicated Account where customers will deposit money for all VAS they are subscribed.

NewsDay also quotes both Econet and POTRAZ denying this move was forced, although the Econet letter (if quoted correctly) seems to confirm that POTRAZ indeed threatened them.

Whether the move was forced or not is unclear, but what we do know is that it is a huge step towards reducing many complaints we have received about Econet.

There has been a sustained outcry about airtime mysteriously disappearing from mobile accounts.

“In terms of the modus operandi, nothing changes except that the money will no longer be deducted from the main account with effect from 20th of June 2015,” the company said.

Econet gave us more detail in a series of tweets.

Ultimately, we are glad something has finally been done. Maybe now airtime will stop disappearing from Econet airtime balances.

It doesn’t really matter that POTRAZ claim to have nothing to do with it.

“We have not sent any communication to cancel any service to any operator.”