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Factmore Dzobo Senior Reporter
THE country’s three mobile phone companies — Econet, NetOne and Telecel — are not sharing signal boosters and this is preventing mobile users from utilising roaming facilities within Zimbabwe, a cabinet minister said yesterday.
Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Supa Mandiwanzira told Parliament that mobile service operators should share their infrastructure to make it easy for customers to switch onto roaming services even though they use different networks.
He said it should be possible for people to connect in an area where there is no network for their mobile service provider, using a signal from another provider.
“When someone is outside the country, one is able to switch onto roaming but in Zimbabwe you can’t do that because the mobile service providers are selfish,” Mandiwanzira told MPs, responding to a question from Uzumba MP Simbaneuta Mudarikwa (Zanu-PF).
“It doesn’t make sense to have three towers from three different mobile service providers like Telecel, NetOne and Econet on one mountain yet they can share one signal booster which can be accessed by different customers.”
Mandiwanzira said the current situation where mobile phone companies were competing on infrastructure and not service was bad for economic development.
The government would soon approach the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) to force the three networks to share infrastructure, which he said would result in cheaper calls.
“Roaming is a very important and convenient facility to customers, we need to discuss the issue with Potraz so that mobile service providers can share their infrastructure for the customers’ convenience,” said Mandiwanzira.
Roaming helps to ensure that a travelling wireless device — typically a mobile phone — is kept connected to a network despite going out of range.
Typically, roaming allows individuals travelling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network the ability to automatically hop onto another phone company’s service, if available, so that they continue to make and receive voice calls, send and receive data.
Online Reporter