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Econet sabotaging Bulk SMS players
Toneo Tonderai Rutsito, Techno Mag
September 29, 2013

View this article on the Techn Mag website

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is reportedly “sabotaging” thousands of bulk SMS services or rather “unmasking” the cool sender ID which compliments the beauty of bulk SMS.

Most private players who called TechnoMag complained that their services were being disturbed by Econet without any formal warning and fear that this is a deliberate move by Econet as it also seeks to offer such a service on mass scale. (Something they once offered and sharply terminated)

The majority bulk messages which are being sent to Econet numbers are being received by recipients with the actual sender number showing, instead of the “cool” customised name, they show number like a UK or Indian one, if at all it goes through otherwise it may be completely blocked.

Most Bulk SMS service providers in Zimbabwe provide the service from India based gateways and they are seeing the bulk message being unmasked, causing them to lose business as bulk SMSs without the customised sender ID are often ignored by recipients or simply treated as spam.

Players who would have paid to have their bulk SMS delivered are complaining that the effectiveness of their message has been reduced and are therefore demanding refunds from the numerous bulk SMS players in Zimbabwe.

Previously Econet had pledged that it would be “protecting” the interest of its clients by safeguarding them from unsolicited spam messages, but this however, does not hold water as they are completely spoiling the service even for the intended recipients.

Kubatana and Zimhosts.com's SMS platforms for instance first gets users to agree to their terms and conditions that their registered details will be used for bulk sms advertising for other clients when they register to use free SMS thus they can't say it's spam esp when they get clearance from Potraz that as long as users have consented.

Few weeks, back during the Zimbabwean harmonised elections, Econet wireless was completely blocking known and popular gateways passing bulk SMS to Zimbabweans citing that it was a directive. Ironically all other mobile service providers kept pushing the bulk SMS service uninterrupted.

“For bulk SMS players, this will lead to thousands of dollars being lost per day since Econet has the largest subscriber base in Zimbabwe” said a player.

Another service provider expressed anger and said that “ this is so bad for our business, they cannot just short change our business model without prior warning”.

This problem only seems to be occurring on the Econet SMS platform as the other mobile operators, Netone and Telecel have been reported to delivering the same message properly.

Econet Wireless has been blamed for “sabotaging” the service as it has big plans to offer the same service to its subscribers hence eliminating and frustrating potential competition.

Bulk SMS services are as cheap as less than a cent per text and they have made big business and proved to be one of the most reliable and convenient way to send messages instantly to hundreds of people by a push of a button.

SMS is being ridiculously charged at about 8 cents across all service providers in Zimbabwe, making Whatsapp a very popular competitive service which charges a fraction of a cent on the amount of actual packet data sent.

Econet does not make money from these incoming SMS as sender keeps all- which makes business sense but why not

1. Offer a lower competitive rate so we use their simcards instead of international gateways

2. Why not ask bulk sms to contribute some small fee for every incoming sms or let alone offer the service at a much competitive price tag and offer the locals to redistribute on their behalf.

3. Why not first offer their own so called bulk sms as an alternative than blocking with no warning when thousands of clients have purchased thousands credit ready to send. This has left all bulk sms with no alternative not even time to advise users that there shall be suspending the service etc

Today Organisations, Churches, clubs and groups of people have adopted this type of service for instant messaging across all networks.

Imagine how many business have been affected, banks, Churches as Christ Embassy, UFIC, ZAOGA, Clubs and organisations too - all these were using bulk sms and times they just get blocked.

Unfortunately Econet seems not perturbed about these worrisome business ethics where the customer comes first and this is truly not a good way to hog the limelight for a superbrand, unless they really just do not care.

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