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Telecel expanding

Staff Reporter 19-05-2009

Telecel Zimbabwe, the country’s third mobile network provider, is on an expansion drive that would soon see 100 000 more lines being released onto the market.This follows the mobile network’s system upgrade which lasted about six weeks.

“The scope of works has been in two phases with the first phase basically targeting Harare and Bulawayo. In these two centres, we have been installing capacity by pulling out selected base stations and replacing them with high capacity equipment. The objective has been to eliminate any form of congestion. We are happy to announce that this exercise has been completed successfully and has resulted in the availability of 100 000 lines,” said Telecel.

The availability of these lines come at a time when another player in the industry Econet has also released 50 000 lines. It is expected that this would improve cellphone penetration in Zimbabwe as well as availability of sim cards.

“Telecel Zimbabwe is now embarking on the second phase of the expansion. We are fully aware of the limited geographic network coverage currently on offer. Under this phase, we will be targeting selected new geographic sites to extend our geographic coverage to cover most highway corridors , service centres and rural areas in addition to all major cities, towns and commercial and mining centres.” Added Telecel.

Telecel added that the increase coverage would also be coupled with increased subscriber base with new lines being introduced onto the market.

There has virtually been a stagnation in terms of mobile network expansion in the last two years as operators faced cash flow problems. The high inflation made it impossible to recover costs and most of the equipment was rendered obsolete as it could not be repaired. However, the new currency regime where services are charged in hard currency has breathed life into mobile operators and they have also responded positively.