The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
FIXED telephone service provider, TelOne will soon start to upgrade its telecommunication infrastructure after securing more than $98 million from China as it races to keep pace with other cable service operators, an official said.
In an interview on the sidelines of TelOne’s Wellness Fair in Bulawayo on Wednesday, the company’s human resources director, Mr Hopewell Zinyau said the $98,6 million loan facility from China-Exim Bank would enable TelOne to be a “world-class” fixed mobile converged communications service provider. The money was secured through a Government to Government agreement.
“We are going to have our projects through the Government to Government agreement where China has invested $98 million,” he said.
Mr Zinyau said the company has managed to connect 86 000 clients through its broadband copper connectivity while it has set a target of connecting 100 000 through its Fibre to the Home (FTTH) project before the end of 2018. The company is undertaking its $25 million FTTH project through a Private Public Partnership arrangement with Wuhan Fibre Home Technologies.
“We have done quite a lot in terms of connectivity because we now have clients in ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), which is broadband connectivity on copper. Of late we have launched FTTH in Harare, Bulawayo and now we are in Gweru.
“We offer connectivity anywhere, we cannot have our copper through the satellite connectivity pipe. So basically we have capacity to connect anyone, anywhere in the country, it being through copper, fibre, satellite but we use satellite as a last line of connection implying we use satellite where we do not have copper or fibre,” said Mr Zinyau.
He said before the end of the year the company was looking forward to launch two highly sophisticated communication technologies.
“We will be launching very good products but at the moment we are still going through modalities. Come end of year we will be launching two very good value added solutions, which I can’t disclose because of the mere fact that they haven’t gone through normal processes in terms of briefing the shareholders.”
He said the fixed telephone network provider was facing stiff competition from mobile telecommunication operators but hinted that the latter were also struggling to stave off competition from the emergence of “value added communication solutions”.
“We have mobile operators but now the competition is more or less the same through your WhatsApp and your Skype, which we call value added communication solutions. This has kind of hit into the revenue from a fixed voice and also from a mobile voice perspective because it’s a cheaper way to communicate as compared to either fixed or mobile. So both fixed or mobile are experiencing a decline because of the emerging of over the top or other value added communication systems,” said Mr Zinyau.
Zimbabwe has three mobile communication operators namely NetOne, Econet and Telecel as well as a number of internet providers such as Powertel and ZOL.
According to latest information from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe telecommunication providers’ revenues have experienced an average of between eight to 12 percent decline following the emergence of a number of value added communication systems over the years.
Last year, TelOne’s revenue declined to $138 million from 157 million in 2014. However, broadband services contributed $28,7 million in revenue in that period. TelOne offers voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and virtual private networks (VPN) to enterprise customers which is said to have become a hit with clients as they are able to manage their communication costs.
@DNsingo
