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Lesego Valela and Vongai Chingeke

TelOne has launched the Blaze LTE wireless service in Chitungwiza as it presses ahead with delivering fast and reliable connectivity so that the Government agenda of smart cities and a digital economy comes to life. 

Speaking during the launch yesterday, Information Communication Technology and Courier Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere said the launch of LTE fulfilled the people’s right to access to information through digital connectivity. 

“As Government, it is our duty to ensure that citizens’ rights are met,” he said. 

“The right of access to information for our citizens is being realised through our current digitalisation drive which includes encouraging our telecoms to come up with services such as one being commissioned today.

“We are working towards achieving a knowledge-based society to enhance our country’s competitiveness and to achieve sustainable economic growth. 

“A better way to do this is to bring connectivity to the people. 

“Through the digitalisation drive, Government endeavours to bring connectivity to under-served communities. To accomplish this target, my team and I, accompanied by our telecoms companies, have been to schools and communities countrywide to donate computers and laptops for school labs.”

Dr Muswere said the Ministry was positive that the drive would aid in the attainment of an upper middle income society by 2030. 

The commissioning of the LTE wireless solution by TelOne complemented the Government’s overall digital transformation drive.

Through the shared 10 base stations, TelOne will provide 100 percent coverage and faster network to more than 6 000 households in Chitungwiza.

Infrastructure sharing in telecoms is critical in reducing costs and avoiding duplication, while also helping in reducing infrastructure capital investment expenses and lowering operational costs, which in the long run will increase efficiencies. 

“Further, it is a good thing in that operators will shift focus in network deployment to service based innovation resulting in more customer centric services like the Blaze LTE service that has just been commissioned,” said Dr Muswere. 

“On a financial perspective, sharing infrastructure will optimise the use of the much-needed foreign currency as it eliminates duplication of infrastructure. We, therefore, call upon all telecoms companies and corporates to embrace the culture of infrastructure sharing to preserve our coffers.” 

Apart from commissioning the LTE service, TelOne has also deployed more fibre in Chitungwiza to connect businesses and small to medium enterprises. 

The expansion of TelOne’s network speaks directly to the National Development Strategy 1, which requires that Zimbabwe sets up an all-encompassing digital economy. 

Dr Muswere said when businesses are connected, they become more competitive and in turn contribute towards economic growth.

“Our Government wants to create a conducive environment to enhance our ease of doing business and with the expansion of fibre connectivity by TelOne, we are achieving this goal,” he said.

TelOne board chairman Dr Douglas Zimbango said digital transformation underpinned this strategy as the company believed that this is the only way to enhance the experience of clients and grow the company’s bottom-line. 

“With the demand for faster speeds and improved quality of service, we have had to be creative in terms of how to raise capital as this has for long been a pain point for the business,” he said. 

“It is, therefore, with pride that we celebrate today’s milestone having managed to deploy this US$1,2 million project through self-funding. However, this is just a small fraction of our strategic intent around network deployment. This means that we still require significant capital and we continue to pursue different strategies to achieve this. 

“I do hope our potential partners, lenders or investors are clear on our drive and will be able see what we are trying to achieve from today. From this project, we have increased our network coverage here in Chitungwiza by 100 percent through the 10 base stations deployed. We are optimistic that this year, we will be able to deploy at least 30 more base stations to bring them to a total of 40.” 

Managing director Dr Chipo Mtasa said TelOne was happy to the launch the Blaze LTE service through riding on towers owned by NetOne, Telecel and Econet.

She said they had been able to deploy the service much “quicker and at a lower cost”.