Black Market SIM Cards Turned a Zimbabwean Border Town Into a Remote Work Hub

Zimbabwe's mobile data is so expensive, people have to rely on a signal from the next country over, Mozambique. Rest of World: Econet and NetOne had a combined 94.5% market share at the end of 2020, according to the national telecomms regulator. Analysts say that the lack of competition, combined with the high cost of running a telecomms business in Zimbabwe -- due to import tariffs on communications equipment, foreign currency risk, and weak infrastructure -- has kept prices high for consumers. "Poor collateral infrastructure, like electricity, dissuades telecomms investment and [means] fewer players, which leads to higher costs," Arthur Gwagwa, a leading Zimbabwe telecomms expert and lawyer, told Rest of World. The cripplingly high cost of internet access has slowed adoption of digital services by individuals and businesses and prevented Zimbabweans from accessing educational materials and health services online, Gwagwa said.

But for people living near the border with Mozambique, there is a workaround. Enterprising traders cross over on foot or on motorbikes, bulk-buy Movitel SIM cards, and return to Chimanimani, where they distribute the SIMs to supermarkets and corner shops, where they are sold with a markup of more than 50%. The availability of affordable internet has made the unfashionable rural district into an attractive destination for people who need to be online for work. The area was hit by a tropical cyclone in 2019, which displaced more than 11,000 people in Chimanimani alone, bringing hundreds of NGO and health workers to the area to work on the relief. Many have stayed, taking advantage of the cheap internet access to work remotely. [...] Nollen Singo, founder of NGO Orphans Dreams, which gives free math lessons to children orphaned by the cyclone, said that he's been able to stay in the region because the cheap internet allows him to connect to free education apps that can be used in the classroom. "It's so helpful being able to access Khan Academy maths app or Buzzmath app online and tutor local orphaned kids," Singo said.

Re:

[Z00L00K]

When they have figured that one out they'll invade Mozambique to put an end to it.

In other words

[quonset]

The U.S. is becoming the next Zimbabwe with lack of competition in ISPs which will ultimately result in higher prices and slower speeds.

Re:

[Z00L00K]

In the US it's all about maximizing profit for the shareholders of individual companies, it's never about maximizing profit for the country as a whole. That ended with the closing of the Apollo program.

landline

[phantomfive]

Why don't they just use a landline?

Re:

[lexios]

They don't use a landline because the infrastructure for that hasn't been as widespread as it was/is in the US/Europe. AFAIK mobile has overtaken landline usage in Africa probably at least decade ago. Mobile internet is bigger business there, than landline internet usage. In the past it was pretty pricey to use internet via the wifi of a hotel. A few years before the whole Covid-19 pandemic started, you arrived at an airport and you could get a local SIM with a few gigabytes of data for less than the price

Re:

[Z00L00K]

Landlines - in Africa? In many places they just skipped that part and just have mobile phone base stations communicating over radio links.

putting it to good use

[rta]

gotta keep that qi balanced, apparently.

From TFA:

"""
Some entrepreneurs have moved to the town just to take advantage of the lower cost of getting online. Tatenda Moyo, a former nurse, moved to Chimanimani in May 2019 from Harare to set up a Chinese medicine business. âoeThe first thing I did on arrival in Chimanimani from Harare was to dump our Zimbabwe Econet SIM card and fetch a Movitel Mozambique SIM card,â Moyo told Rest of World. âoeI need super-speed internet to communicate fast via Zoo

But why here?

[demonlapin]

Why is this happening in such a completely out-of-the-way place that looks a hell of a lot like a tiny town? There are numerous larger towns and even real cities along the Zim-Moz border where it would seem to be far easier to get the things you would want, without a bunch of hills interfering with your Mozambican cell reception. Mutare is even on the main Harare-Beira road, and has decent-sized places just on the other side of the border.

Just seems like there's no really clear explanation of why they ch

Re:

[cybernanga]

There was a cyclone that devastated a large swathe of Mozambique, and this small portion of Zimbabwe (Zim) was affected, not any of the major towns or cities. On the Zim side, NGO's, Charities, Medics etc, arrived in large numbers to assist.

They found that, in spite of the terrain, the signal from the Mozambican Mobile Networks was pretty strong on the Zim side of the border, and many of them stayed because of the combination of speed and price, as Zim prices for ANYTHING are often exorbitant, and the Zim n