adminSharing of infrastructure will, in the long run, see the revival of parastatals in the telecommunications sector, a senior official said. This comes as the Government said it was in the process of developing a framework which will compel both public and private companies in the sector to share infrastructure.The framework would be a constructive input between the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) and players in the sector, who include TelOne, NetOne, Econet and Telecel.
Speaking on the sidelines of the official opening of a base station at Kagande Primary School in Mutoko, Mashonaland East province recently, mobile network provider, Net One acting chief executive officer Brian Mutandiro said their partnership with courier services firm Zimpost was working well and they were “piggybacking” on each other.
NetOne is in the process of rolling out base stations across the country under the second phase of network expansion which is expected to be completed this month.
Recently the company commissioned another base station in Nyanga, Manicaland province.
“For us we are saying let’s leverage on what we have and so we have reached an agreement with Zimpost that will see NetOne being in 229 outlets that Zimpost have.
“I cannot think of another organisation that has such national outreach as Zimpost so this is how we will access and also be able to follow up on the demand that we have created,” he said.
Mr Mutandiro said the companies had been discussing the partnership for quite some time but it was only recently that they had started implementing it.
“As early as last week we had very good meetings with Zimpost where they were giving us access to their outlets. Shortly we will start training their staff to sell our products and will also see some branding of Zimpost outlets,” he said.
He said since they were going to invest in network expansion, Zimpost would be utilising that “extra capacity” that it has created and which would give it a faster penetration of the market.
Mutoko North Member of the House of Assembly Mabel Chinomona said the development provided an opportunity for the local community to have access to communication and enhance easy of doing business.
“All along we had no networks here in Charehwa so we had a problem even to access someone who is in Harare, let alone Mutare, so people had to climb the mountains so that they could get the network and with this, I think our business will prosper,” she said.
Mutoko is well known for producing the best mangoes in the country and they come very cheap. – New Ziana.
Online Reporter