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owned firm TelOne with a mobile phone service licence.
The fixed telecommunications operator will become the fourth company to obtain a licence after NetOne, Econet and Telecel.
Potraz deputy director-general Mr Alfred Marisa said the authority granted TelOne the licence late last year. He said the State-owned firm could now start rolling out its mobile phone services to the public.
“Last year TelOne requested for the GSM frequencies when their 20-year licence was due to expire. We allocated them those frequencies,” he said.
TelOne was granted the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), a frequency that makes it possible to offer mobile telecommunications services to the public.
Efforts to get a comment from TelOne on the latest development were unsuccessful, as the firm had not responded to questions by the time of going to print.
Challenges around funding could be the biggest impediment to TelOne’s plans to roll out mobile telecommunication services.
But Potraz said it was aware of the financial limitations faced by TelOne in rolling out their mobile phone services.
The regulatory body said it had not given TelOne fixed timelines in terms of rolling out mobile phone services. It remains to be seen how much time it would take TelOne to start rolling out the services, considering its financial challenges. The firm has failed to connect more people to its landline network and currently has about 300 000 customers on its system in a country with a population of more than 12 million people.
NetOne is facing a similar problem. Despite being the pioneer mobile phone operator in the country, the firm is now the smallest after Econet and Telecel.
In an effort to boost subscriber numbers and enhance competitiveness, NetOne has been courting South African firm MTN for a possible partnership.
Zimbabwe has been experiencing rapid expansion in mobile phone penetration since the introduction of the multi-currency system. This has seen mobile phone operators significantly increasing subscriber numbers to cash in on the high demand for mobile phone services.
Growing demand would impact positively on the economy. The World Bank contends that 10 percent rise in mobile penetration results in 0,6 percent growth in Gross Domestic Product.
Government has also recognised the need to join the technology revolution to keep pace with dynamics the world over.
The Government has allocated significant resources towards the laying of the fibre optic cable that connects the country to undersea cables in Beira via Mutare.
Online Reporter