Zimbabwe’s mobile data market is facing a quiet but consequential shift, one that deserves urgent public scrutiny. The growing reliance on off-peak data by mobile network operators raises a fundamental question: are consumers being served or systematically short-changed?

Both Econet and NetOne now sell data bundles that split usage between peak and off-peak hours. While marketed as value addition, the design of these bundles tells a different story. According to the operators’ own published schedules, Econet’s off-peak hours run from 11:00 PM to 4:00 AM, while NetOne’s Mo’Gigs off-peak window runs from 1:00 AM to 7:00 AM. These are not marginal hours, they are core sleeping hours for most Zimbabweans.

Students, workers, small business owners, and informal traders are overwhelmingly offline during these periods. That reality is not incidental; it is predictable. The implication is clear, a significant portion of paid-for data is structurally difficult, if not impossible, to use.

Consumers are effectively buying data with their own money, only to be told when they may use it. This is not how most consumer goods function. Fuel is not sold with driving hours attached. Electricity is not restricted to certain times of day after purchase. Yet mobile data now essential for work, learning, trade, and communication, is increasingly sold with built-in usage barriers.

From a consumer-protection and technology-policy perspective, this raises serious concerns:

• Operators know most users will be asleep during off-peak hours.

• Unused data expires silently.

• Consumers cannot opt out of the split.

• There is no clear evidence of informed public consultation.

Based on realistic usage patterns, it is reasonable to estimate that 10–15% of purchased data per bundle cycle goes unused, not through consumer choice, but by design. That translates into real financial loss, particularly in an economy where data costs remain high relative to incomes.

This brings regulatory oversight into sharp focus. What position has the Consumer Protection Commission of Zimbabwe taken on this model? What research justified dividing consumer data by time? And if approval was granted, on what basis was predictable consumer loss deemed acceptable?

Zimbabwe’s digital economy operates during the day when people work, study, trade, and create. Connectivity that primarily “works” at night does little to support productivity, inclusion, or economic growth.

Off-peak data is often framed as a bonus. In practice, it is a commercial design choice, one that shifts value away from consumers while maintaining the appearance of generosity.

This is not a call for confrontation but for transparency. Zimbabwean consumers deserve clear explanations, evidence-based justification, and meaningful representation in decisions that increasingly shape daily life.

In the digital economy, silence is not neutrality. It is consent. And consumers are right to ask: who is speaking for them?