Shame Makoshori, Chief Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S mobile phone network industry registered a 16 percentage point surge in tele-density from eight percent in February last year to 24 percent in November of the same year, the first such improvement in more than a decade.
Tele-density is the number of main telephone lines for every 100 inhabitants.
The improvement follows the relaxation of duty on handsets by the Ministry of Finance that resulted in prices being reduced by about 50 percent, resulting in ordinary handsets, which averaged US$60 in 2008, selling for US$30.
Statistics indicate that at least four million lines are now operating across the three networks in Zimbabwe, up 50 percent from about two million in 2008.
The country’s three mobile phone networks — the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed Econet Wireless, the State-run Net*One and Telecel Zimbabwe — have responded to the tax realignment by launching massive network expansion programmes to meet anticipated demand.
Econet Wireless, the country’s largest network controlling 61 percent share of the market, rolled out its first data service in September last year and is estimated to have spent close to US$300 million in network expansion since February last year.
Telecel Zimbabwe was expected to double its subscriber base to 700 000 by October last year.
Similar expansion programmes were underway at Net*One, the country’s second largest mobile network.
Econet chief executive, Douglas Mboweni, last week said over 200 new base stations were set for commissioning in the next two months.
“We are sitting on a prepaid system capacity of 5,1 million, and we are carrying three million subscribers at present,” he said. “We have built over 400 base stations, 200 of which will come on line in the next six weeks. Our priority is to build a system that is stable and congestion free, with the capability to provide the most up-to-date services available anywhere in the world,” he said.
A senior government official said with positive prospects expected this year, both the tele-density and penetration rate, which surged by 20 percentage points to 30 percent last year, were expected to improve.
“It is not all gloom for Zimbabwe. Tele-density in mobile phone networks increased from eight percent in February 2009 to 24 percent in November,” Tourism and Hospitality Industry permanent secretary, Sylvester Maunganidze said at a recent presentation.
“People are now able to purchase SIM cards from shops for only US$5, and we expect the prices to further decline,” he said.
Government is, however, worried by the deterioration of operations at fixed line monopoly, TelOne, where despite huge demand for lines, little capital expenditure has been expended to expand the network.
In the three-year macro-economic policy 2010-2012, government said increased investment in information and communication technology had significantly buoyed the telecommunications industry.
