STRIVE MASIYIWA, the unflagging founder of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and the Johannesburg-based transnational corporation, Econet Wireless International (EWI), suggested to his former employer, the state-owned Postal Telecommunications Corporation (PTC), by then a telecommunications monopoly, that it should move into mobile telephony in partnership with his newly-formed company.
Not surprisingly, he got this dismissive not-in-a- thousand-years response and rebuffed the idea. They surmised Masiyiwa's prediction that wireless telephony would overshadow fixed telephony was a pie in the sky. In any case, PTC could make sure Masiyiwa would not fulfill the idea - they would fight anyone who dared challenge their telecommunications monopoly. Much to their surprise, Masiyiwa's mobile telephony prophecy was fulfilled when Econet was launched on July 10, 1998.
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