The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) in executing its mandate as per the PURA Act, 2001 and the Information and Communications Act 2009 has determined that all Telecommunication operators shall offer a per second billing to all prepaid and post-paid subscribers by 1st March 2020.
Per Second Billing offers customers simple and transparent pricing plans as the cost for mobile voice calls are rounded to the nearest second. This enables consumers to get value for money as they only pay for the exact length of a call. This is a major shift from the pricing plans being offered by Mobile Network operators where the cost of a call is incrementally rounded to the nearest tariff block as detailed below per operator;
•COMIUM’s billing cycle is divided into 12 second increments within the minute across both On-Net and Off-Net calls.
•AFRICELL’s billing cycle is divided into 4 instalments of 15 seconds each across both On-Net and Off-Net calls.
•GAMCEL’s billing cycle is divided into three twenty second parcels for On-Net Calls. Off-Net calls are billed in 60 second increments irrespective of the duration.
•QCELL’s billing cycle is divided into 4 instalments of 15 seconds each for both On-Net and Off-Net calls.
This determination aims to enforce uniformity across pricing plans whilst ensuring consumers are adequately protected against incremental call charges and billed according to exact usage. It should be noted that this does not constitute a change in tariffs which remain the same but rather deals with the applicability of charging mechanisms which would change significantly. It is envisaged that the net savings for consumers would be on average 7% across all networks.
For more information, the relevant determinations are accessible online at www.pura.gm/tariffs-2/.
For more information please contact PURA on 148.
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