Financial Gazette (Harare)
Shame Makoshori
2 July 2009
Harare — MOBILE phone company Econet Wireless Zimbabwe this week took delivery of the first shipment of equipment from Swedish supplier, Ericsson, to expand its network capacity.
Econet is Zimbabwe's largest mobile phone network company accounting for 61 percent of the market share.
In April, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed firm said it projected that after the current expansion programmes are completed, it could increase its market share to 74 percent if the other two networks -- Net*One and Telecel -- do not make major investments in their networks.
Chief executive officer (CEO), Douglas Mboweni said on Monday when installed, the delivered equipment will completely eliminate the shortage of mobile phone lines in the country.
He said the deliveries marked the first step towards expanding the company's network to accommodate five million subscribers by the end of next year.
Mboweni said this week's shipment comprised base stations, and core network equipment.
Econet has two suppliers for its network and has split the country into Northern and Southern regions.
Mboweni said his company planned to ship equipment valued at more than US$200 million over the next few months from Ericsson, and ZTE of China.
ZTE supplies the Southern region while Ericsson is responsible for the Northern region.
"We have been waiting for the arrival of these shipments, because, as you know, it takes quite some time, for a company, like Ericsson to manufacture this type of equipment, once they receive an order. This equipment will all go into the Northern region of our network," Mboweni said in a statement.
"This equipment is less than 15 percent of what we have in the pipeline, because we are working towards taking the network to five million subscribers, by the end of next year," the Econet CEO added.
The bulk of the US$94 million order from China is expected to arrive before the end of July, with installation taking up to the end of the year to complete.
Mboweni revealed that efforts to clear the backlog of pre-paid lines were now at a very advanced stage.
Econet is currently selling more than 30 000 Buddie lines per week, while contract lines are available on demand.
He said that queues were gradually beginning to disappear outside Econet shops, and that the black market had also collapsed.
Mboweni said that his company was confident that the shortage of lines was now a thing of the past.
"By the end of next month, it will be possible to buy a Buddie line without queuing," he said.
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