Harare — MOBILE phone service provider NetOne has installed equipment worth US$7,5 million to upgrade its mobile switching centres and base stations countrywide.

The move is aimed at easing congestion and improving the quality of network service.

One of the switching centres, with a capacity of 760 000 lines, is in Bulawayo.

It is excepted to cater for that part of the country while the one in Harare is being upgraded.

A mobile switching centre is an intelligence system route that routes or switches a call to its intended destination.

In an interview with Herald Business yesterday, NetOne managing director Mr Reward Kangai said the company was also planning to establish and commission some base stations in Harare to avoid congestion.

"We are doing a number of things at the moment like exchange upgrade and our Easycall prepaid system is also being upgraded," he said.

So far the easycall upgrade has increased the capacity of its subscribers from 100 000 to 500 000.

The company has also introduced a new system called Intelligent Network Platform for easycall subscribers.

This brings greater convenience to subscribers as they receive messages just after making a call updating them on the duration of the call, the amount of airtime used and their balance.

Mr Kangai could not reveal the exact number of lines the mobile phone provider was set to release by the end of this year.

"I cannot disclose that, what I can only say is that we will notify our customers when we are set to release them.

Currently NetOne is the mobile phone service provider with the widest coverage in the country.