Orange Botswana Slashes International Roaming By 50%

Staff Writer | Monday February 24, 2014 15:33

While this public disclosure is without doubt long overdue, Orange Botswana deserves the applause for being the first cellular phone company to come out and explain international roaming rates to the public.

It is interesting to learn that upon entering the respective countries and connecting to their network, Orange customers shall receive an SMS communication detailing the pricing structure for voice, data and SMS for the particular zones.

The roaming tariffs will also be made available to the public on the Orange Botswana website portal www.orange.co.bw and that this information will also be accessible from all Orange point of sales across the country.

According to Orange Botswana, they embarked on this tariff review as part of the SADC collective guidelines to improve transparency of mobile roaming service in SADC, especially roaming charges to avoid shocking bills. Key amongst the Orange Botswana announcement is the announcement that they have sliced roaming charges for South Africa by 50%. This is very welcome, as it saves the individual quite a lot, taking into account that traditionally a caller would lose more than P5 per call per minute while roaming in South Africa alone.

The Orange announcement also explains that regional calls are categorised as Zone1, Zone2, Zone3, with each zone having its own roaming charges. From this information callers are now armed with the information they need to make informed financial decisions when it comes to roaming charges for a specific region.

We are looking forward to receiving information on roaming charges for other zones besides South Africa, but welcome the slash in roaming tariffs for Zone1.

 We challenge other cell phone companies in Botswana to follow Orange Botswana, slash roaming charges, as well as detail to the public the financial implications for roaming in the various zones. The roaming individual deserves to know in advance, through a transparent system of roaming charges disclosure, rather than being caught unawares by exorbitant roaming fees that are a great inconvenience.