Online Reporter
Michael Tome
Business Reporter
Mutapa Investment Fund subsidiary, TelOne, says it will continue to pursue ways of funding infrastructure improvements and network upgrades, despite struggling to secure equity or loan funding.
TelOne has been experiencing liquidity shortages, which are constraining the company’s working capital and limiting its ability to fund capital expenditures.
This situation has mainly been worsened by some of the company’s key business partners failing to settle their obligations.
Despite the challenges, the company has made notable capital investments to support its strategic drive through its own internally generated funds.
Some of the key projects undertaken by TelOne in 2024 include base station deployment efforts, which continued with the commissioning of 29 new sites on the LTE network.
This expansion drive was crucial in enhancing network coverage and capacity, ultimately improving the quality of service for TelOne’s customers.
The company also managed to connect 12 000 homes to its Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network as it moved to provide high-speed internet access to more households, enabling more people to access essential online services.
The telecoms firm successfully invested in its customer service infrastructure, completing a 305-square-metre Omni Contact Centre with 102 seats.
This state-of-the-art facility is designed to enhance customer experience, providing a more efficient and effective way for customers to interact with the company.
It also deployed various digital platforms and upgraded its core systems, a move expected to improve operational efficiency and enable the company to respond quickly to changing market demands.
Pursuing these initiatives demonstrates TelOne’s commitment to invest in its infrastructure and network, despite the challenges it faces in securing external funding.
“TelOne continues to pursue initiatives to raise funding for infrastructure development and network upgrade projects despite a lack of equity funding and the unavailability of loan funding,” said chief executive Engineer Lawrence Nkala at the company’s 2024 annual general meeting held yesterday.
He added: “Through its own internally generated funds, the company made notable capital investments in order to support its strategic drive.”
These developments come as TelOne recorded a 20 percent increase in inflation-adjusted revenue to ZiG2 billion in the 2024 financial year.
According to TelOne, the revenue increase was largely driven by organic growth across various business segments.
The Wholesale business segment was a standout performer, achieving 102 percent growth and recording sales of 81.8 gigabytes by the end of the period under review.
This significant growth underscores the increasing demand for wholesale services and TelOne’s ability to capitalise on this trend.
The Enterprise business segment grew by 26 percent, achieving sales of 25,87Gb. This growth highlights the company’s strong position in the enterprise market and its ability to deliver value-added services to its clients.
In addition to these segments, TelOne’s Data Centre and Cloud Solutions business also saw significant growth, with a 23 percent increase in rack space occupancy and cloud storage demand.
According to TelOne, this growth indicates the increasing demand for cloud-based services and TelOne’s ability to meet this demand.
The Home Broadband segment also saw a five percent increase in subscribers, reaching a total of 147 876 subscribers with an average revenue per user per month of US$12.
Despite the revenue growth, TelOne’s operating costs increased to ZiG1,4 billion, up from ZiG986 million in 2023.
This increase was driven by inflationary pressures experienced in the first half of the year, as well as network repairs resulting from vandalism and depreciation expenses due to an interim revaluation.
The company was, however, able to record Earnings Before Tax, Interest, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) of ZiG416 million in the 2024 financial year, which is a testament to the company’s ability to generate earnings despite the challenges it faced.
