In a statement sent to VerAngola, the operator explains that a recent report by the OECD and the African Union made it possible to compare data from 2018 with last year and thus conclude that Angola is improving its Internet access services.
Regarding the prices charged, the report, which established that the price of a 30-day 1GB package "remained below five percent of the monthly income of an average inhabitant in the 51 countries monitored," indicates that Angola is still far from improving in this aspect.
However, crossing the 2018 information provided by Research ICT Africa (RIA) with information from June last year, available on the RIA website, it is possible to conclude that the country has been developing the telecommunications sector: "By looking at the current position of the price of the same 1GB on the RIA portal updated to June 2020 we can see that Angola has improved 26 positions, moving from ranking 49 to 22."
According to Unitel's note, this improvement trend will be to be maintained. "RIA has officially informed Unitel that Angola has improved 5 more positions in the ranking and will soon appear in position 18 as soon as the 3rd quarter of 2020 becomes available on the portal."
The note also reports that there were two other factors that helped to reduce the price for 1 GB of 30 days, among them the "depreciation of the local currency while the price in local currency went down due to price drops. According to Unitel, the GB fell from 17.39 dollars to 2.97, representing a drop of 82 percent, higher than the depreciation of the local currency.
The statement also says that another factor is linked to the emergence of covid-19. Since the pandemic appeared, "UNITEL has provided to Angolans until the end of 2020, totally free of charge, more than 750 million minutes, 319 million written messages, and 2.5 billion GB," with the aim of alleviating the pandemic's impacts.
The operator also says it believes that Internet access will be maintained and that the "objective outlined by the OECD and the African Union, that the 1GB will cost less than five percent of the monthly income of the majority of the Angolan population. of the Angolan population".
