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Business Reporter
TELECEL requires $200 million to pump up the mobile network provider’s subscriber base to 5,5 million as the company seeks to take advantage of opportunities in the mobile money services, a senior official has said.
Currently the company has a subscriber base of about 500 000 with 3,3 million active subscribers.
Giving oral evidence before the portfolio committee on Communication, Technology, Postal and Courier Services yesterday, Telecel general manager Ms Angeline Vere said the company is on course to move 1,2 million Telecel subscribers to its mobile money service, Telecash by year end.

So far 600 000 subscribers have been moved to the mobile money platform.
“We have moved more than $15 million through Telecash since its launch,” said Ms Vere.

More than 3 600 agents have signed on to Telecash. Ms Vere said the $200 million will help the firm to take the subscriber base to 5,5 million.
“Our switching capacity at the moment is five million and by the end of the year we should be at 5,5 million. By end of year we are anticipating that our active subscriber base will be at 3,3 million,” she said.

Telecel urged parliamentarians to pass legislation that would make it mandatory for mobile network providers to share infrastructure.
“Government should make it mandatory for us to share the infrastructure. We feel it should be done on a commercial basis where the person who puts up the infrastructure benefits more from their investment but allows other players to benefit from it as well,” she said.

“There is nothing stopping us from sharing infrastructure, the only problem is that if we put a small tower then the load on that tower will be too much.
“So Government should make it mandatory that when you put a tower you should put one that can carry all the other networks as well,” she said, adding, that companies were wasting money on importing the same equipment which they can easily share on agreed terms.