adminBy Tonderai Rutsito
Telone in a major bounce back move has been revamping its copper cables which for a long timehad been left dangling or tossed on the ground, in some parts of the country, copper cables and poles were vandalised or stolen greatly affecting communication and viability.
The state owned, fixed operator has not been deterred by these major setbacks but has made an interesting tremendouscomeback identifying much more value from the standard copper lines, turning them into reliable internet connectivity means viaAsymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ADSL.
In an unprecedented move, Telone support personnel have been spotted around neighbourhoods rejuvenating the cables, pulling them back in shape and powering them up with both voice and data signals much to their revenue streams .
Laying and maintaining Infrastructure is the most fundamental move to develop ICTs as well as remain relevant in this highly volatile, technological industry.
Internet connectivity via ADSL has been an old way to connect online yet Telone may have jumpedon to the wagon years later, it is still one of the most popular and reliable means of connectivity compared to wireless signal which faces line of sight problems.
Besides the standard ADSL, Telone recently also introduced SHDSL, a way too faster means of connecting online on the same copper lines which gives speed balance on both uploads and downloads connectivity speeds, making it a very stable and reliable means of connection.
This will naturally square up with local speeds offered by most fibre optic service providers, if unshared even better since it strikes an uplink and downlink balance.
SHDSL is the product which Telone should rather be pushing more to their clients instead of the standard ADSL as this has stability issues compared to the market competition which is already rolling out fibre optic, which literally has unlimited speeds though pricey.
Of course Telone has its own fibre infrastructure, probably the second biggest in Zimbabwe and the only one cutting across Zimbabwe directly linking Mutare to Victoria falls, sinking into Mozambique and a back-up via the South African gateway.
This really puts the parastatal at a competitive position since they are actually running their own infrastructure with a leverage to control and determine the price to the end user while this can really come handy too as they have copper cables laid out already nationwide. This is the major strategic position which the Telone has and are largely utilising to gain a bigger piece of the market share.
The managing director of Telone Mrs Chipo Mtasa said that they are working flat out to make sure that Telone returns back to its number position as both a reliable fixed land line operator and an Internet Access Provider.
“Our mandate is very clear as a service provider, giving connectivity to the whole nation is our major focus and we are working tirelessly to reconnect all the vandalised and dormant lines”, she said.
Landline is another serious area where Telone could really do better, considering that they are a monopoly, it is rather disturbing that only a pinch of landlines are active compared to the number of mobile subscribers, of course landlines have their own natural limits since they are fixed to areas they are prone to suffer mobility advantages.
Now that they are finally breathing life back to our landlines, a major boom is highly anticipated as confidence has been restored.
I have personally had an encounter with the Telone sales and marketing crew at home, where they are actually doing door to door invitations to reconnect or invite new subscriptions for landline service.
Considering the costs of landline, surely having this indispensable asset is an economic move every house hold ought to make at only 5cents per minute to call other landlines and 18cents for cell phones, this is an ideal move moreover for business.
- The Writer is the editor of TechnoMag, Zimbabwe`s Premier Technology Magazine, more on www.technomag.co.zw or join us on our facebook page www.facebook.com/technomagzw Email ictarticles[at]technomag.co.zw tweet @TechnoMagZw.
Online Reporter