Internet traffic in Zimbabwe has come close to a standstill after an international satellite firm slashed its bandwidth because the cash-starved government failed to pay the bill.

The Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association (ZISPA) said on its Web site that TelOne's connection had been severed, causing an "almost collapse" of the Internet in the country. It said ZISPA would lobby the government to help it pay the debt.

Chingwaru said TelOne had asked the government for permission to charge big companies in foreign currency to avoid being cut off in the future.

Truly amazing... Mugabe is running such a poor show over there, that companies want permission to charge customers in foreign currency, because the central banking system is broken. One of Stratfor's recent podcasts suggested that Mugabe's government is close to collapse, so this is not that shocking.