Malawi mobile phone data not expensive—TNM Plc

One of Malawi’s leading mobile internet service providers, TNM Plc has come out to dispel social media reports that the country has the most expensive internet data prices.

On the contrary Malawi’s data prices are about at an average of K1,691 (US$2.25) per Gigabyte (GB), a senior TNM official has clarified.

This week, a report by media content provider Visual Capitalist, erroneously singled out Malawi’s data charges as the highest from a basket of other African countries at U$27 per GB.

But reacting to the reports, TNM Head of Brand and  Marketing Communications Louis Chipofya said Visual Capitalist has retracted the said report in circulation and offered an apology.

“Visual Capitalist has apologized about the chart that was in circulation on social media with incorrect data about our data charges. Dan Howdie, Director of Content and Communications at Existent, responsible for the research done by www.cable.co.uk (the source quoted in the Visual Capitalist graph), in a conversation with TNM Plc CEO Michiel Buitelaar, confirmed that the figure for Malawi is an anomaly,” he said.

Chipofya said significant investment in building a modern mobile internet network and upgrades to the 4G platform by TNM has increased penetration of the 4G network by 75 percent across the country. This has led to a marked reduction in the average cost of 1Gb from K7,000 in 2016 to K1,691 in 2020 or by 75 percent.

“Contrary to the alleged rates, TNM’s effective price in 2020 has been MK 1,691 per GB and we have popular bundle offers MK 1,000 per GB, with some going as low as MK 600 per GB.

“As Malawian company, TNM is committed to see data prices continue to go down but this is only achievable if more people start using data to achieve economies of scale resulting in reduced data pricing per GB,” he said.

He said between 2015 and 2020, TNM he invested a total of K91.9 billion in upgrading its ICT infrastructure to provide a world class 4G experience for customers enabling faster downloads and streaming of rich data and strong internet connectivity.

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