adminWhen it issued the licence, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe said it was not giving TelOne timelines to roll out its services.
TelOne has since said it requires between 50 million and $100 million to operationalise the licence.
Acting TelOne managing director Mr Hampton Mhlanga said a number of investors had shown interest in partnering them.
“We have not secured a partner yet but there are several people we are talking to,”he said.
Mr Mhlanga would, however, not shed light on progress in negotiations and timelines for rolling out the project. “All I can say is that the negotiations are looking up and we will make an announcement once we have something concrete,” he said.
Zimbabwe has three mobile phone operators, namely Econet, Telecel and NetOne.
Since the country adopted multiple currencies in 2009, it has experienced rapid expansion in mobile phone penetration.
Failure by TelOne to connect more people to its landline network due to financial and infrastructure limitations has aided the situation.
As a result, fixed telephone penetration rate has dipped drastically over the years, with TelOne remaining with slightly over 300 000 subscribers after losing about 50 000 subscribers in the past two years.
The company is also sitting on a huge debt overhang and the Government has earmarked it together with 10 other parastatals for privatisation and commercialisation to change their fortunes. — New Ziana.
Online Reporter