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NetOne managing director Reward Kangai

Service provision at NetOne has been rather erratic this month following a complete black out on some mobile network numbers and intermittent data connectivity which left some of the mobile service company’s subscribers in a lurch. NetOne has also been quiet about its popular value added services on data bundles like Whatsapp and Facebook bundles and other new developments given that it recently concluded a deal that will see it accessing a $218million loan from China. Technomag (TM) caught up with NetOne managing director Mr Reward Kangai (RK) to discuss the disruptions to services, the loan, new developments and services.

TM: Mr Kangai we understand your company recently acquired a $218 million loan for NetOne Infrastructure development, what will this money cover?
RK: We are overly excited that after some serious challenges the loan was finally approved, the first batch of equipment worth around $35 million is already here and getting cleared this week and we should be able to start implementing and testing the new technology, including the 4G base stations

TM: You seem to be talking about equipment will you be receiving any cash as part of the loan?
RK: It’s interesting that you brought that up, most people think that we are receiving the loan as hard cash. No that is not going to happen; the china bank will be paying our supplier, Huawei and their subcontractors to supply the equipment that we need.

TM: Your service delivery particularly this month has been erratic and from comments posted on your official Facebook page most of your subscribers are not even accesing 3G service for fast web browsing what has been causing this?
RK: Some of our base stations are now very old, they do not even have that capacity, we have around 53 base stations, which are not 3G capable, and we have been replacing them.
On data services, this is mainly caused by the current network upgrade we are undertaking but this will soon be a thing of the past.

TM: Subscribers last week could not get basic connectivity while some lines were completely disconnected, why has NetOne failed to deliver on such services?
RK: Firstly the recent outage was caused by our Bulawayo backhaul fibre cable outage, this was a fibre issue that affected Powertel, our carrier in Bulawayo and a certain batch of numbers was affected. I guess this calls for redundancy for backup purposes

TM: You have been accused of sleeping on the job because you have failed to offer latest products such as Facebook and Whatsapp bundles when your competitors have already done so?
RK: Facebook bundles are now ready awaiting dispatching, we are also working on something very exciting on Whatsapp bundles but I will not divulge any further details concerning that matter.

TM: Why has it taken you time for you to introduce them when millions are crying for the service?
RK: Our current system was commissioned years ago, we have to first change it so that it allows such data based services to be charged especially for our post paid customers, then we finally roll out the data based Value Added  Services

TM: Do we have a time frame for these developments?
RK: This will surely happen latest by or before the first week of December this year, we have been working behind the scenes to ensure network optimisation, this is fundamental and it comes first.
With the coming in of new hi-tech from Huawei we will be speaking of nationwide 4G coverage even to all rural areas.

TM: Mr Kangai when you speak of LTE technology covering  the rural areas is this a proper business model considering that it is very expensive  to implement why would you want to invest such a technology in rural areas where you are likely not going to get any returns at all.
RK: Rural areas are key to us, we are on an overdrive towards what we are calling National mobile broadband project. Our objective is to provide nationwide broad band service, there should never be any difference between the rural and urban arrears, even where it concern their schools, but of course we do have our strategy on how we will make our venture in such regions profitable.

TM: Why 4G when you have erratic 3G supply, don’t you think you should fix this first?
RK: We have a local supplier working on our 3G system so there have been some service disruptions, which are inevitable, but you will see a change before November. Once the exercise is complete, service will be perfect.

TM: How are you going to deploy 4G, will you also target some areas in the CBDs first like your competitors have done?
RK: We have a huge consignment of 4G technology coming in, although we will test our first 4G base station in urban areas, we are looking at speeds of 100mb/s and this will be at national level, remember for us this a major National mobile broadband project we are rolling out

TM: Some time last year when I interviewed you, you raised concern over the bureaucratic process you are required to go through to get approvals for any major project especially at the State Procurement Board (SPB), has the situation changed?
RK: Not yet, unfortunately we are operating in a highly competitive environment and technology is dynamic, for us to keep on going through the SPB, and other bureaucratic process is tantamount to shooting ourselves in the foot.
We are not state sponsored, we fully and independently operate but we wonder why we should go through the State Procurement, we do not use tax payers money but we are self funded, all our trade secrets are exposed to the public via that process and it takes time for implementation before some of these ideas are even stolen by our direct competitors, we really need not go through these process.

TM: How has the Government responded to your plea?
RK: We are working towards a solution, it’s not yet solved but we are optimistic this can be solved.
The writer is the editor for TechnoMag Zimbabwe`s Premier Technology Magazine, more  www.technom.ag/8g watch the full video on  or join us on our facebook page www.facebook.com/technomagzw Email articles[at]technomag.co.zw tweet @TechnoMagZw