Harare — Zimbabwe has reversed a decision to impose a drastic increase in mobile phone data charges, which provoked an angry response from customers and critics who accused President Robert Mugabe’s government of trying to curtail the use of social media. Last year activists used the internet to mobilise the biggest antigovernment protests in a decade, bypassing traditional opposition parties as anger grew over Mugabe’s handling of the economy. Econet Wireless, the Southern African nation’s largest mobile telephone company, raised data charges by a multiple of 25, in line with new regulations from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe. But Information Communication Technology Minister Supa Mandiwanzira said in a statement on Friday that the tariff increases were "shockingly high" and blamed mobile phone companies for "gluttonous corporate greed".
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