RYAN CHIGOCHE
Zimbabwe’s largest telecommunications operator, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is feeling the pinch after incurring huge costs owing to rampant theft and vandalism of its network infrastructure across the country.
Econet has installed solar panel and diesel generators at its sites to keep base stations running following persistent grid power outages.
However, such infrastructure is targeted by vandals.
The company secretary Charles Banda said the firm has enhanced security at its sites to counter the threat.
He said persistent national grid power outages have affected network quality and reliability, thereby necessitating the company to increase its efforts to augment power supply with solar power.
“However, as inflation increases and disposable incomes are coming under more pressure, there is a discernible increase in the theft of diesel, batteries and solar panels. In response, we have enhanced security at our sites to counter the effects of increased vandalism and theft,” Banda said in the company’s trading update for the first quarter ended May 31,2022.
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation surged to 256.9% in July from 191.6% the previous month as the value of the local currency continued to plummet, exerting more pressure on disposable incomes.
Econet said it will hike tariffs by nearly 183% as the sector was granted a staggered tariff adjustment by the regulator of 61% in July 2022, and a further 61% with effect from September 1 2022, and a further 61% with effect from November 1 2022.
The tariff adjustments will cover voice, SMS, data and internet services and are determined in the local currency.
However, despite the imminent hikes in tariff the company has bemoaned the viability of the tariffs.
“Tariffs remain below viable levels and it is the hope and expectation of the group that in the near term, a scientific and fact-based approach to setting tariffs, that takes into account the movements in the telecommunications price index, will be adopted for the industry,” Banda said.
He added that the said approach will allow the group to remain focused on delivering high quality digital services across the country by being able to invest sufficiently to absorb the increasing demand for its services.
In the first quarter ended May 31, 2022, voice and data traffic grew by 6% and 18% respectively, over the previous largely due to the group’s customer acquisition strategy.
5G service was further rolled out in Bulawayo during the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair and in Victoria Falls as well as in Chitungwiza during the quarter under review bringing the total number of 5G sites rolled out to 22.
The business also added 100 new 4G sites to improve network and speed of data connectivity.
However, the rural population remains marginalised in terms of full access to digital services with less than 20% of devices in the country being LTE/4G capable.
In the outlook, Econet said it would ensure that digital inclusivity is achieved across all sectors of the society, with the support of the authorities.
