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Martin Kadzere

NetOne has made senior appointments with four executives joining the State-owned mobile phone company, sources have said.

The company appointed Mr Stanley Muchemwa as chief information officer, Mr Isaiah Nyangari, chief commercial officer, Mr Learnmore Masunda, general manager (micro finance services) and Ms Roselyn Chisveto, head of marketing and public relations. 

The four appointments  are with effect from September 1, 2021. The positions of chief operating officer and chief technical officer remain vacant and expected to be filled with effect from October 1, 2021, company sources said. 

“NetOne is beefing up its executive in line with our vision, to be the preferred mobile service provider in Zimbabwe; to be the market leader,” said one official who declined to be identified because is not authorised to talk to the media. No official comment could be obtained from NetOne by the time of going to press yesterday.

NetOne is the country’s first cellular network operator on the Global System for Mobile Communications. 

The company was launched with 500 lines during the World Solar Summit in September 1996 in Harare. NetOne, a private company wholly owned by the Government, was formed as a subsidiary of the Post and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) in 1996. Its main focus and objective were to introduce and offer mobile cellular telecommunications to complement the fixed line telecommunication services offered by PTC. Since then, service has been expanded countrywide 

NetOne boasts of a wide coverage in Zimbabwe. NetOne has over the years pioneered routes for coverage, building a strong footprint of coverage in all provinces, major highways, towns, growth points, township centres and farming areas.

The network has since expanded to about 3,7 million subscribers, according to the telecommunications sector performance report forf first quarter 2021 by the Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory of Zimbabwe (Potraz). 

The company’s market share gained 0,7 percent during the first quarter  of 2021 to 28,7 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. 

Econet Wireless remains the market leader at 65,5 percent. Telecel lost subscriber market share by 1 percent owing to the huge decline in their active subscriber base.

During the period, Econet and Telecel lost voice traffic market share by 2,2 percent and 0,7 percent while NetOne gained market share of voice traffic by 2.9 percent.

NetOne was the only mobile company that invested in new base stations in Q1, having added four.

Apart from offering the basic telephone service, NetOne also offers supplementary and value added services such as vehicle tracking system, short messaging services, international roaming, mobile fax, broadband services and mobile financial services.