The Sunday Mail
Africa Moyo Business Reporter —
GOVERNMENT has directed TelOne and NetOne to jointly implement their planned expansion projects and share infrastructure in order to save costs and maximise efficiencies.
The two state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are currently drawing loan facilities from China’s Eximbank. While TelOne received US$98 million, NetOne got US$65 million for its network modernisation project.
However, the two SOEs have been pursuing separate expansion programmes, especially for the expansion of fibre optic networks.
Government has since gazetted Statutory Instrument (SI) 137 of 2016 to force all operators to share infrastructure. Under the new arrangement, TelOne will focus on rolling out backbone transmission infrastructure and data centre facilities.
TelOne corporate communications manager Mrs Melody Harry confirmed last week the two companies will be engaging in infrastructure projects that complement each other.
“Infrastructure sharing ensures price affordability of products and services. TelOne and NetOne are both owned by the same shareholder, which is the Government of Zimbabwe.
“The convergence of telecommunication services implies that both entities should work together in order to avoid duplication and improve quality of service.
“This lessens the burden for funding on the part of the Government and allows for rollout of new services.
“TelOne will therefore focus on the rollout of backbone transmission infrastructure and data centre facilities while NetOne will also focus on their own specific areas,” said Mrs Harry.
On Wednesday, TelOne announced the roll-out of the National Broadband Project, which has been granted national project status.
The network modernisation project, which began late last year, is expected to take between 18 to 24 months.
Through the project, TelOne’s telephone exchanges will be upgraded, resulting in the modification of area codes and landline numbers across the country.
Also, the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls microwave radio link has been upgraded, including the Mutare-Harare-Bulawayo-Plumtree fibre optic backbone link.
TelOne believes that sharing infrastructure will help reduce capital expenditure for its expansion project.
“The regulation will (also) help to reduce the environmental degradation as new infrastructure will only be deployed where existing set up does not suffice to meet the requirements of a new player.
“The total cost of ownership of the network and business as a whole is drastically reduced and such savings can be channelled towards other network and product development requirements,” said Mrs Harry.
TelOne intends to complete the construction of the Bulawayo-Beitbridge optic fibre link during the second quarter of the year.
Additional funds will also be raised for last mile connectivity, value added services equipment and facilities, which will ensure better services to clients and business growth.
On the other hand, NetOne is expected to use US$40 million from China Eximbank this year to complete the second phase of its expansion project.
The country’s second-largest mobile telecommunications company completed the first phase in the three-year period to 2013 at a cost of US$45 million.
Econet, however, has been reluctant to share its infrastructure, claiming that it invested a lot of money on its network at a time when its competitors “chose to deploy their money in large fleets of cars, multi-storey buildings for their executive offices, and various other assets that we have no wish to share in”.
Since launch in 1998, Econet says it has ploughed over US$1,5 billion in infrastructure and owns about 80 percent of all telecommunications infrastructure in Zimbabwe.
