Econet Ordered To Restore Interconnection With NetOne

Zimbabwe’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, Econet Wireless, has been forced to reverse its decision to switch off interconnection with state-owned NetOne.

Econet decided to cut services to NetOne owing a dispute over interconnection fees amounting to more than USD20 million that Econet claimed had been unpaid since 2009. However, the country’s high court has now ordered Econet to resume interconnection with NetOne. Econet says it is also trying to recover unpaid interconnection fees from TelOne.

And, in a separate development, Econet says it has begun taking delivery of new equipment that will see the capacity of its mobile network increase to ten million subscribers.

‘Shipment of the equipment, which began in the last few days, is expected to continue well into next year. The equipment is being supplied by Ericsson of Sweden and the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer ZTE,’ the company said in a statement. ‘The new expansion drive by Econet is also expected to see its investment in Zimbabwe exceed USD1 billion, the largest ever in the country’s history. It follows the approval by the Econet board to "mop up" the remaining demand for lines in the Zimbabwe market.’

At the end of June 2012 Econet had almost seven million subscribers, corresponding to a market share of around 65%.

Potraz to Disconnect 30% of SIMs Over Non-Registration

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has completed compiling a register of all mobile phone users in the country, state-run newspaper The Herald writes. 


The confidential database was completed following the regulator’s order last year for all cellular network users to register their personal details or be disconnected in the interests of curbing criminal activity. 


The registration deadline was 28 February 2011. The report says that by that date, state-owned cellco NetOne had registered 90% of its subscribers, whilst rival Telecel Zimbabwe had registered 80%, but market leader Econet Wireless only 60%.


With Econet controlling over 60% of the wireless market, the reported figures give a combined average of around 70% registration, indicating that around 30% of the country’s approximately nine million activated mobile SIM cards will now be disconnected, leaving a market of an estimated 6.3 million subscribers, or roughly 54% of the population.

Telecel Says NetOne Is Not Sharing Towers

Orascom-backed mobile operator Telecel Zimbabwe’s CEO Aimable Mpore has accused state-owned rival NetOne of refusing to share cellular tower infrastructure, according to a report in Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald.

In the course of responding to questions on Telecel’s ownership structure from the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media, Information and Communication Technology, Mpore disclosed that Telecel has had no problems sharing infrastructure with the country’s largest cellco Econet or incumbent PSTN operator TelOne, but claimed that NetOne has dismantled Telecel's equipment ‘because the facilities belong to them.’

Mpore called for state enforcement of site-sharing principles.

Econet Cuts Ineternational Rates by 50%

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has cut its international call rates by up to 50%, meaning users can phone destinations including the UK and South Africa for as little as USD0.004 per second (USD0.24 per minute). Aiming to boost previously flagging international voice revenues, Econet stressed that mobile calls from Zimbabwe to South Africa are now cheaper than the reverse. Zimbabwe’s three cellcos – Econet, Telecel and NetOne – recently introduced a universal per-second billing system for all mobile calls.



Separately, an Econet spokesperson announced that the South African mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) owned by the Econet Wireless Group (EWG) has sold more than 500,000 SIM cards in the last twelve months to Zimbabweans living in South Africa, piggybacking on Cell C's network under the 'Call Home' banner. The spokesperson predicted that Econet Wireless South Africa’s SIM card sales would exceed one million ‘within a few months’. EWG recently set up a similar MVNO service in the UK targetting people calling African countries.

Econet to Introduce Per Second Billing

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, the country’s largest mobile operator, will launch comprehensive per-second billing for all national and international calls, for all its pre- and post-paid users next month, its CEO Douglas Mboweni has announced. The GSM provider, which currently offers per-second billing on certain services, said the move applies for corporate and residential subscribers, at peak or off-peak times, and on calls to any mobile or fixed network. ‘The cost of making calls will be cheaper, so traffic volumes will increase. We had to first clear issues of capacity before [fully implementing] per second billing,’ Mboweni said, explaining the fact that the firm had delayed the implementation after announcing the move around a year ago. Zimbabwe's three mobile operators – Econet, Telecel and NetOne – were given until September to implement per-second billing by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ); NetOne was reportedly the first network to charge customers per-second but to date has not announced a comprehensive service covering cross-network calls; Telecel is also yet to confirm it will comply with the new billing system. The three cellcos are also facing a 31 August deadline set by POTRAZ to register the details of all pre-paid mobile SIM card users.

Telecel Zim Plans to Launch GPRS, 3G

Telecel Zimbabwe plans to launch GPRS and 3G services in either August or September, according to The Zimbabwe Standard. Telecel MD Aimable Mpore says the new infrastructure is currently being tested, and that the service will be available in all major cities at the time of launch.

Telecel, Zimbabwe’s second largest cellco by subscribers, will become the country’s second mobile operator to roll out 3G, after Econet.

Ecoweb To Introduce Mobile WiMAX

Ecoweb, the wholly owned ISP subsidiary of Zimbabwe’s largest cellco Econet Wireless, has revealed that it is in the final testing phase of a mobile WiMAX project and will be opening up the new network to subscribers next month.

Ecoweb’s general manager, Tororiro Isaac Chaza, said: ‘The deployment of mobile WiMAX will take place in two phases. In the initial phase, a total investment of 100 WiMAX base stations will be deployed across the country, targeting our main business centres. All the network elements are in place and testing and network optimisation is currently in progress. Deployment of the service is envisaged to begin April 2010 ... The mobile WiMAX network will be capable of carrying mobile, nomadic and fixed services ranging from individual netbooks to large corporate networks. The technology is also suitable for use as backhaul for mobile networks.’

Ecoweb first announced it was preparing to launch mobile WiMAX services in October 2009.

MTN's Stake in NetOne Could Fall Through

South African news service Bizcommunity reports that MTN’s planned acquisition of a 49% stake in Zimbabwean cellco NetOne could be in danger of collapsing after it was revealed that some members of the government are opposed to its privatisation. Finance Minister Tendai Biti is said to have told a parliamentary committee that there was growing discomfort over the sale. ‘Some of us are uncomfortable selling NetOne,’ Biti said. ‘We believe it [NetOne's poor performance] is a management issue.’ The reports claims that Biti also said the mobile network business was ‘like printing money,’ and that there was no reason for NetOne to be in its current state when rival cellco Econet Wireless Zimbabwe was ‘making USD65 million every month.’

NetOne is currently the smallest wireless network operator by subscribers in Zimbabwe, despite being the first to launch. At the end of 2009 the company claimed approximately 10% of the country’s wireless subscriber market.

Zimbabwe Issues deadline on SIM Registration

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has issued the country’s three mobile network operators with an ultimatum to register the personal details of all pre-paid SIM card users by 10 August 2010.

State-backed newspaper The Herald quotes POTRAZ’s director-general Charles Sibanda as saying that the measures were being introduced for security reasons. He added that a penalty schedule would apply to companies that failed to meet the deadline. Econet Wireless Zimbabwe leads the market with approximately three million subscribers followed by Orascom Telecom-owned Telecel with around 650,000 customers and government-owned NetOne with no more than 500,000 subscribers. The vast majority of users are pre-paid.

In a separate announcement, POTRAZ has directed the three mobile operators to make per-second voice call billing available for all subscribers. Per-minute charging remains common in the country at present.

Econet Persists In Holding Back Zain Deal

According to a report by Bloomberg, an ongoing legal dispute over the ownership of Zain Nigeria between the Kuwaiti group and Econet Wireless Holdings could delay the sale of Zain’s African operations to Indian firm Bharti Airtel.

Econet, which owns a 5% stake in Zain Nigeria, claims that its right of first refusal over the ownership of the cellco was breached in May 2006, when its Nigerian partners sold their shares to Zain, and recently applied for interim measures to prevent Zain from selling, transferring, disposing of, dealing with or otherwise encumbering the disputed stake until the matter is resolved.

Bharti Airtel entered a period of exclusive negotiations, lasting until 25 March 2010, with Zain over its African operations. It remains to be seen whether delays to the sale of Zain Nigeria, Zain’s largest African subsidiary with an estimated 15.22 million customers at year-end 2009, will threaten the timely conclusion of a deal between Bharti and Zain.

Burindi Carriers Team Up To Build Fibre Line

A number of Burundian telecoms operators have joined forces to build out a national fibre-optic backbone network in the small African country, aided by the World Bank. The so-called ‘Burundi Backbone Systems’ group, which includes incumbent PTO Onatel, mobile operator Leo (formerly U-Com), Africell (owned by V-Tel and Palestinian Paltel), Econet Burundi and domestic ISP CBI Net.

Balancing Act reports that Burundi Backbone Systems will oversee the development of a 1,200km backbone and several international fibre links connecting the country to its neighbours in the next 18 months. The World Bank is contributing money to the scheme which will provide coverage throughout Burundi with cables laid alongside road routes, with 26 different nodes.

NetOne Wants Fresh Loan Terms From Treasury

State-run Zimbabwean cellco NetOne has approached the treasury to renegotiate terms for a USD28 million loan obtained from international financiers at its inception more than a decade ago, reports AllAfrica.com, quoting The Zimbabwe Independent. Reward Kangai, NetOne’s managing director, told the parliamentary portfolio committee on media, information and communication technology that the firm had since 2002 failed to service the debt owed to three lenders, among them the UK-based Standard Chartered Bank.

However, Kangai added that NetOne could level the playing field with its privately-run competitors, Econet Wireless and Telecel Zimbabwe, if the government approved the setting up of an independent procurement committee to replace the current state body which, the MD claimed, often took close to six months to procure supplies for the GSM operator.

Kangai said the company had failed to replace its obsolete billing system following a decision by the existing procurement board to cancel bids by prospective suppliers, and as a result subscribers on monthly contracts were shifting to the pre-paid platform, EasyCall.

Meanwhile, the government has received USD53 million in financing from China for expanding NetOne’s network and customer base. The company had been targeting ‘five million subscribers by March this year’; it was reported this month to have less than 500,000 subscribers.

In a separate development, the incoming managing director of Telecel Zimbabwe, Aimable Mpore, revealed to the same parliamentary committee that the Orascom Telecom subsidiary would launch 3G mobile services by June this year after it was granted necessary wireless frequencies by the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) last week.

Econet To Introduce Prepaid Roaming

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, the country's largest mobile operator, says it has been working for more than six months to implement pre-paid international roaming, and expects to introduce roaming services for its Buddie and Libertie pre-paid users by the end of this year.

 

Company CEO Douglas Mboweni confirmed that the work was now at an advanced stage following 'heavy' investment, and that testing would begin in early December, adding that roaming capability was expected to have a huge positive impact on the pre-paid business.

 

Econet's customer base is approximately 97% pre-paid; back in March 2008 the figure was 91%, but post-paid services were temporarily suspended later that year at the height of the country's economic collapse, and since relaunching its services over a newly expanded network this year, the demand has been overwhelmingly for pre-paid lines.

"Econet Case Will Not Derail Zain Africa Deal"

Kuwait's Zain Group is not concerned that a lawsuit filed by South Africa's Econet Wireless pertaining to the company's 2006 purchase of Nigerian operator Vee Networks (now Zain Nigeria) will derail plans to sell a 46% stake in the group to Indian investors, Bloomberg reports, citing Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai. 'The lawsuit is old and dates back to before 2006,' Zain CEO Saad al- Barrak told the newspaper, before adding that Econet had lost similar lawsuits filed against Zain in British courts over the last four years.

Econet claims that its right of first refusal over the stake was breached when Zain bought out the Nigerian cellco in May 2006, and has said it will continue to pursue arbitration proceedings. Econet has also applied for interim measures to prevent Zain from selling, transferring, disposing of, dealing with or otherwise encumbering the disputed stake until the matter is resolved.

The blocking could disrupt plans by the Al-Kharafi group, which holds an indirect 10.8% stake in Zain, and its National Investments Company to sell a total 46% stake in Zain Group valued at USD13.7 billion to a consortium of Indian and Malaysian investors, including BSNL, MTNL and Vavasi Telegence.

Econet Continues To Dispute Zain Nigeria Sale

South African-based telecoms group Econet is continuing to dispute the 2006 purchase of a 65% stake in Vee Networks by Celtel International, which has since been wholly acquired by Zain Group, Reuters reports.

 

Econet was a founding shareholder in Vee Networks, which has since been renamed under the Zain Nigeria banner. The South African group claims that its right of first refusal over the stake was breached in May 2006, when its Nigerian partners sold their shares to Zain, and has said it is sticking to the pursuit of arbitration proceedings.

 

Econet said it has appealed to legal authorities, including an international tribunal working under the United Nations, for the transaction to be unwound. It has applied for interim measures to prevent Zain from selling, transferring, disposing of, dealing with or otherwise encumbering the disputed stake until the matter is resolved.