28 SepNetOne Launches OneFi Wireless: US$60 Unlimited Internet, but Geo-Locked
NetOne has launched OneFi Wireless, an unlimited home and office internet package that costs US$60 for 30 days. You buy a US$1 geo-locked SIM at any NetOne shop, get it activated, then buy the bundle by dialling *371#, or *217# to pay with OneMoney. NetOne announced the package on 28 September, and a fair usage policy applies.
It has taken NetOne a long time to answer Econet’s SmartBiz, which arrived in 2024 as Starlink prepared to launch. But the delay may have been worth it, because NetOne appears to have learned from the mistakes its rivals made along the way.
What we know so far
| Price | US$60 for 30 days |
| SIM | US$1, geo-locked, from NetOne shops |
| Data | Unlimited, subject to a fair usage policy |
| How to buy | *371# with airtime, or *217# with OneMoney |
| Meant for | Home and office Wi-Fi |
NetOne has not yet said what speed you get, how much data triggers the fair usage policy, how tightly the SIM is locked, whether it works in a phone or only in a router, or whether it runs on 4G or 5G. These are exactly the questions people have been asking under NetOne’s post, and we will update this article when NetOne answers.
Why the geo-lock matters
The geo-lock has drawn the most criticism, with some users saying US$60 is not worth it for a locked line. It is a fair complaint. You cannot carry the SIM to work, to your rural home or on holiday, as you could with an ordinary data bundle.
But the lock is also what makes an unlimited package workable. A mobile network is shared. Each base station has a fixed amount of capacity, and unlimited users tend to use a lot of it. If those users can move freely, they pile onto the busiest towers in town, often the same ones everyone else is using, and speeds collapse for all. Locking each SIM to one location lets the operator see how many heavy users each tower has, and stop selling in an area once it is full.
Lessons from Liquid, Econet and Starlink
Every major provider has been here before, and each ended up with some form of lock.
- Liquid Home launched its WibroniX LTE lines in 2019 with the freedom to use them anywhere in its coverage. In 2020 it locked every line to the customer’s registered address.
- Econet sold SmartBiz as a non-geo-locked line. At first it did not even enforce the advertised speed, until it capped SmartBiz 5 at 5 Mbps in 2024. By mid-2025, our own SmartBiz line had slowed to well under 1 Mbps, even though ordinary data bundles on the same device reached 70 Mbps.
- Starlink let roaming kits drift into Harare after the city sold out. It then cut roaming to 30 days and added a passport check for kits used abroad. We were sceptical at first, but the lesson is the same: where there is no fibre, demand for unlimited internet is huge, and it has to be managed.
NetOne is starting with the lock in place instead of adding it later, which is the fairer approach. Customers know the rules from day one, rather than finding them changed after they have paid.
The advantage of moving slowly
NetOne is government-owned, which means it faces less pressure than Econet to answer every competitor move straight away. Econet had to respond quickly when Starlink arrived, and SmartBiz shows the cost of launching first and fixing problems later. NetOne has had the luxury of watching and waiting. Whether the product is good will depend on its network, but the design shows the delay was used well.
Is US$60 good value?
It depends on the speed, which NetOne has not published. For comparison, SmartBiz 5 cost US$45 a month when it launched at its lower price, and Starlink’s Priority packages cost from about US$100 a month plus tax. See our internet prices page for current home packages.
Before you buy, ask your NetOne shop three things: the speed, the fair usage limit and what happens after it, and whether the SIM can be moved if you relocate. If you try OneFi Wireless, send us your speed test results.
