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Tinashe Makichi : Business Reporter

Local internet access provider, Aquiva Wireless will this year invest about $11 million towards rolling out a fibre optic network project from Harare to Plumtree, a senior company official said.Aquiva Wireless is a communication solutions provider which offers satellite and fibre-based connectivity solutions in Africa. The company is a holder of an Internet Access Provider Class “A” licence which was issued by The Post and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe in January of 2010.

In an interview yesterday, Aquiva Wireless chief executive Blessing Mutenga said the company has enough financial capacity to carry out the project in line with stipulated timelines.

“Basically Aquiva is an internet services provider established in 2007. In between the licensing period we developed infrastructure in Harare, Bulawayo, Beitbridge and Mutare. We are working on a project of bringing cheaper bandwidth for internet and believe our company has capacity to provide affordable access,” said Mr Mutenga.

“We have a project running between Harare and Plumtree where we will be competing with the likes of TelOne, Liquid and Powertel but our ultimate goal is to bring cheaper bandwidth for the nation.”

Mr Mutenga said towns along the route will be connected with the Harare-Gweru route already completed.

He said the rolling out of Gweru-Plumtree route will start next month with commissioning of the project expected in August this year.

“We are not only going to bring this cheap bandwidth to Harare, but towns and cities along the route will be connected as well. A total investment of $11 million will be made towards the project

“We are looking at particular structures of financing for the project, some which includes vendor financing,” said Mr Mutenga.

He said the company has since made few acquisitions of certain strategic companies to leverage on the deployment of network. Mr Mutenga said the company has consistently delivered high quality, cost effective and efficient communication solutions to Telco’s, ISPs, Governments, enterprise customers and residential users.

He said the service is maintained by a highly professional and dedicated staff with outstanding engineering skills.

He said Aquiva can help deploy private data networks regardless of terrain countrywide using VSAT technology.