Africom needs to shape up

Tonderai Rutsito
I have been following developments at Africom with keen interest and I am dismayed that the company has not done much in ensuring a fast, reliable and good network coverage.A lot is expected from Africom given that it is a converged communication service provider that has been operating for the past 17 years.
My sentiments are confirmed when one browses through the Africom Facebook page.

Africom was the first company in Zimbabwe to offer data for as cheap as US$18 per gig at a time when the other players especially the GSM operators were still charging exorbitant prices.

Africom’s decision was influenced by its partnership with the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe and the National Social Security Authority, which resulted in the laying of an optical fibre link between Harare and the Seacom undersea cable in Beira via Forbes Border Post in Mutare.

It is this connection to the Seacom undersea cable that enabled the provision of wholesale internet to local service providers by Africom and its ability to actually dictate the market prices. During that time it seemed that the Africom team was making all the right noises but they neglected their infrastructure to the extent that they were marketing a product that did not measure to the levels that they were claiming. I believe that Africom needs to do the following to get back on top:

Fast internet connectivity

Africom’s CDMA dongle is a very popular product with people who need internet connectivity on the go but they need to work on the connectivity, which is slow.

Given that it has the infrastructure, it appears to have a base station bandwidth contention problem which they should work on urgently to improve connectivity.

Although it is practically impossible to have a completely stable internet access, Africom can solve this by availing more base stations because their clientele base has grown.

Unlimited bandwidth

This is one area which will unlock value for Africom. While their cross over campaign has been received well by many, Africom needs to remove the ceiling on bandwidth access.

Coverage

While Africom may be commended for the strides they have made so far, they still can do a lot more to make sure that Zimbabweans across the nation can get sufficient coverage.

At present Africom products and services are being accessed in major towns and cities.

Voice

By virtue of it being a pioneer of commercial VoIP service provider, Africom has potential to be the biggest voice calling service provider if it develops technology its CDMA technology further. Africom commands only 2 percent of the total voice market in Zimbabwe while it has only around 100 000 data customers. However, on VoIP market, Africom commands more than 70 percent market share.