Online Reporter
Business Reporter
Econet Wireless is betting big on artificial intelligence to transform its network from the inside out, targeting a complete overhaul of the customer experience by mid-next year, a senior company executive has said.
In a note to shareholders, Group CEO Dr Douglas Mboweni said improving customer experience is Econet Wireless’ main focus.
Dr Mboweni said AI tools had identified several areas requiring attention. Econet is pursuing each of them, with the aim of resolving the issues by June next year.
“AI showed us that almost 60 percent of network faults were linked to power problems,” he said. “That prompted a national programme to install solar panels and batteries across our network. We expect to commission our own power plant in February to supply our switching centres and data centres.”
AI analysis also identified thousands of customers with faulty SIM cards or phones manually set to the wrong network speed. Econet has asked affected customers to bring their devices to its shops for assistance.
“We did not realise the scale of this problem until our AI tools identified it,” Dr Mboweni said.
“Customers have been coming into our shops, and we expect to resolve the issue for everyone affected within the next few weeks.”
A deeper AI analysis found that continuing to operate 2G and 3G networks was limiting Econet’s ability to reduce congestion.
Besides offering slower speeds, the older networks use frequencies needed to expand capacity.
Econet has responded by purchasing more 4G and 5G base stations and beginning the retirement of its 3G network.
Econet has also introduced AI tools that can identify and diagnose network faults. Dr Mboweni said faults that once took hours to trace can now be identified in minutes.
Another major initiative is what Econet calls “cloudification”: moving its network systems onto Google Cloud. Dr Mboweni said this would improve resilience, help keep essential services available during disruptions and allow Econet to introduce new products more quickly.
“We believe the cumulative impact of these initiatives will deliver the best possible experience for our customers,” he said.
