admintechnology sector.
A country’s tele-density measures the number of active mobile phone SIM cards and landlines as a percentage of its total population.
But if recent figures released by some of the mobile operators are anything to go by, the tele-density rate could now even be higher than 90 percent.
For instance, Econet last week announced that its subscriber base had hit seven million.
Potraz figures show that by June 30, the country had a total of 10 914 770 mobile subscribers.
Of that total, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe had 6 427 788, NetOne 2 484 342 and Telecel Zimbabwe 2 002 640. The Potraz figures show that by mid-year, mobile telecoms were contributing 87,11 percent to overall tele-density, with fixed tele-density standing at 2,77 percent.
TelOne is Zimbabwe’s sole fixed telecoms provider and as at June 30 had 346 211 subscribers.
But Potraz statistics do not include new VoIP and CDMA operators, such as Africom, Brodacom and Gigatel that have launched telephone services.
The growth in Zimbabwe’s tele-density rate over the past two years has far exceeded official targets.
The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology is currently propagating a five-year strategic plan to 2014, in which it targets to increase national tele-density by 10 percent each year.
Meanwhile, Potraz deputy director-general Mr Alfred Marisa told Herald Business that the telecoms regulator had decided to shift from outsourcing Quality of Service (QoS) measurement and are themselves now conducting the study.
“Last year, we engaged a consulting firm to carry out QoS measurements whose results we intended to use in enforcing QoS standards. However, outsourcing this service has proved to be unviable,” he said.
“Potraz recently floated a tender for the supply of QoS measurement equipment. After the acquisition of the equipment, we will be in a position to do our own independent monitoring and measurement of QoS.”
The move comes as Potraz is planning to engage the mobile service providers on poor service.
“Once the equipment is acquired, Potraz will be able to effectively enforce QoS targets as prescribed in the licences of operators.”
ICT Minister Nelson Chamisa recently deplored the shoddy service being provided by some mobile phone network providers and promised to rectify the situation. “It’s time to read the riot act on our mobile operators,” he declared during the ICT Africa Conference last week.
But he did not divulge the specifics of how this would be achieved, but as the state regulator for the local telecoms industry, Potraz is expected to play the key role in monitoring the operators’ quality of service.
Online Reporter