Telecel network coverage increase to 85%

TELECEL Zimbabwe network coverage has increased by 35 percentage points to 85 percent since Zimbabwe's economy was dollarised in 2009.

According to Telecel, which has invested over $50 million into network expansion over the past two years, its network coverage was 85 percent as at March 31 this year.

"Our current coverage is estimated to be 85 percent of populated areas. In 2009 it was around 50 percent. Coverage is an important area of focus for Telecel and we continue to work on increasing it along with the network quality for both voice and data," said a Telecel spokesperson.

Telecel is, however, slightly behind its competitors, Econet and NetOne whose coverage is over 90 percent and 85 percent respectively. Former Telecel chief executive, Francis Mahwindi told a media briefing in 2012 that the company's network coverage was around 75 percent then. He said they were targeting 85 percent by the end of 2012 and 90 percent by December 2013.

The company's active subscribers have not been growing and  have been stagnant at 2,5 million for about eight months.  The company had projected active subscribers to reach 2,7 million by December 2012.

"Our connected subscriber base is 4,37 million. However, our active base is 2,5 million active subscribers," the spokesperson said.

International telecommunications company, Orascom Telecom Holdings, injected $70 million into its Zimbabwean unit, Telecel Zimbabwe in 2012, part of which was used to boost network coverage.

Orascom says the money put into Telecel Zimbabwe was meant to expand and upgrade network and services after the major shareholder was convinced that there was a huge potential for expanding mobile telecommunications services in the country.

Telecel Zimbabwe is the country's second largest mobile company by subscribers, trailing Econet Wireless with close to nine million active subscribers.
NetOne has close to 2,2 million subscribers.

Asked about what products, the market and its subscribers should expect from the company, Telecel said: "As always, we are constantly working on creating value for our customers and while we are not in a position to divulge our strategic product launch plans for the future, you can expect a huge long term offering in the next few weeks with even more offerings coming later in the year."

Telecel says its biggest challenge since dollarisation has been access to funding to sustain the rapid network expansion.

"However, dollarisation has come with reduced inflation rates. This has proved important to our business stability, as stable inflation rates are important to long term business planning," the company said.

Meanwhile, the number of telecash agents and merchants countrywide has increased, from 1 600 to 2 600 since the mobile money transfer service was launched by Telecel at the end of January.

Telecash has also signed agreements with two insurance companies and a medical aid society for the payment of premiums and subscriptions through telecash. Telecash allows subscribers to use their cellphone as an electronic wallet to transfer money, pay for airtime, buy groceries, pay  bills and pay for goods and services.