An interview conducted by radio and television personality Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa with rapper Stunner via social media platform Facebook Live on Monday exposed the country’s broadband service providers for their inefficiency and poor service.
The interview between Stunner, real name Desmond Chideme and Ruvheneko was much anticipated after it was widely advertised on social media.
The interview, dubbed ‘Keeping up with the Chidemes’ by followers of Stunner and his wife Olinda broadcast on Facebook Live at 4PM, was a new spectacle in the country.
It drew many social media users and kept them glued to their devices due to the controversy generated by the marital drama between the two.
However, poor broadband services dampened the interview for most users who could hardly follow the discussion
Facebook Live appears to be too much for the country’s broadband service providers as the video had poor quality and its audio would go faint in some instances.
Even the host Ruvheneko acknowledged in a video she posted on her Instagram page that the live stream speed was slow.
“I appreciate that the live footage wasn’t the best quality. So we’re going to share a full video with HD quality. I’ll share the link soon,” said Ruvheneko.
During the interview, the footage would at some point go offline, clearly indicating that the broadband service provider is not ready for the new Facebook Live facility.
Most Facebook Live users had to wait for close to two hours to access the supposed online interview which ordinarily they were supposed to have watched in real time.
The other social media users ended up abandoning the live interview preferring to download the video later on. Two hours later some downloaded the video and started sharing it on social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
This comes at a time when Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has come under fire from users who accuse it of dabbling in trivialities instead of ensuring that service providers give real value for money. This was after it set a floor rate for data bundles that is more expensive than the previous rates