Botswana and five Southern African countries have reduced and harmonized mobile roaming tariffs under a regional initiative aimed at lowering communication costs and supporting cross-border connectivity, the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority said.
The arrangement involves Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe and forms part of the One Network Area framework promoted by the Southern African Development Community.
The initiative seeks to align roaming prices across participating countries and gradually expand across the region.
Mobile operators in the participating markets have implemented sharp reductions in roaming costs for data, voice and text messaging.
Data roaming prices between operators in Botswana and partner countries fell by between about 10% and 98.6%, depending on the operator and destination market, according to the BOCRA statement on March 10.
Roaming data charges between Botswana’s Orange network and operators in Zambia, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe dropped from more than 22 pula per megabyte in several cases to about 1.61 pula.
Similar reductions were introduced by Botswana Telecommunications Corporation and Mascom Wireless under newly concluded or revised bilateral roaming agreements.
Botswana’s communications ministry first committed to expanding the roaming framework during a meeting of Southern African ministers responsible for information and communication technologies held in Harare in February 2025.
The minister responsible for communications and innovation, David Tshere, pledged to replicate earlier roaming arrangements between Botswana and Namibia across more regional markets.
The regulator said the program aims to support trade, investment and mobility by lowering cross-border communication costs while encouraging wider use of mobile data services across the region.
Several operators have also signed new roaming agreements that previously did not exist between some networks, expanding connectivity for travelers and businesses operating across Southern Africa.
Discussions with Mozambique on additional roaming arrangements remain underway, according to the authority.
