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.

TelOne Gets GSM Licence

Zimbabwe’s Postal & Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) has issued state-owned fixed line telco TelOne with the country’s fourth GSM mobile service provider licence, according to a report on AllAfrica.com.

POTRAZ deputy director-general Alfred Marisa revealed that the watchdog granted TelOne the concession late last year in response to a request for GSM frequencies from the telco when its 20-year telecoms licence was due to expire. The regulator added that it had not given TelOne fixed timelines to roll out mobile services, in light of its financially challenged status.

The state already owns a GSM operator, NetOne, the smallest of the country's three cellcos behind Econet and Telecel. NetOne is currently attempting to boost its flagging fortunes under a state-blessed strategy to find a foreign private sector investment partner, with South Africa's MTN the leading candidate. TelOne has also previously been reported to be in partnership talks with prospective foreign partners, chiefly Telkom South Africa, according to TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database, and the addition of a GSM licence could increase the incumbent's attractiveness as an investment.n the matter.

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 Comply With Ownership Rules

Telecel Globe, a part of Egyptian group Orascom Telecom, has submitted its proposals to reduce its 60% shareholding in cellco Telecel Zimbabwe to 49% to comply with the country’s indigenisation regulations. A letter containing the proposals was submitted to Transport, Communication & Infrastructure Development Minister Nicholas Goche and Indigenisation & Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, Zimbabwean Sunday newspaper The Standard reports. Telecel Globe said in a statement that the letter was approved by both of the GSM operator’s shareholders, holding company Telecel International and the local Empowerment Corporation.

The statement added that ‘there are no other shareholders in Telecel Zimbabwe and there never have been any others, although some people seem intent on misrepresenting themselves as being shareholders,’ referring to various claims on the company’s future ownership rights, mostly from individuals associated with groups that make up the collective Empowerment Corporation stake.

Telecel International, as a foreign shareholder, was obliged, both in terms of the Indigenisation Act and the licence that regulator POTRAZ issued to Telecel Zimbabwe in 2002, to reduce its shareholding from 60% to 49%. ‘Section 12.1.3 of the licence states that the licensee shall within five years from the date of signing of the licence ensure that the foreign ownership is reduced to 49%,’ the statement said, whilst clarifying that ‘It has not been possible, due to hyperinflation, to reduce shareholding within the stipulated period through the sale of shares, as nobody in Zimbabwe was able at the time to guarantee international euro or United States dollar loans.’

Telecel Zimbabwe Users Nearing 1 Million

Telecel Zimbabwe, the country’s second largest mobile network operator by subscribers, has signed up ‘close to a million’ users, parent Telecel Globe’s CEO Kai Uebach told media in Harare last Thursday, as reported by the Zimbabwe Standard. The cellco had 592,000 subscribers at end-December 2009 according to a Telecel Globe presentation, based on a 90-day user activity period, whilst Q4 2009 blended ARPU was reported as USD12, using the exchange rate as of 31 December.

Uebach told the local journalists that Telecel Zimbabwe was in the process of rolling out 170 new base stations countrywide, whilst its network signal quality had recently been significantly improved. Telecel has also invested heavily in electricity generators and batteries so that its network can continue operating during frequent and prolonged periods without mains electricity.

Meanwhile, he attributed the rapid rise in Telecel’s subscribers in the last few months to its reduction in the price of SIM cards to USD2, including USD1 of air time, alongside the lowering of the cost of international calls to countries where there were substantial numbers of ex-pat Zimbabweans. The CEO also rebuffed recent accusations of ‘externalisation’ of funds at the company, simply stating that equipment that was unavailable in Zimbabwe had to be sourced abroad, and was purchased at competitive prices.

Uebach said he had met with the Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) and government ministers to assure them that Telecel Globe would comply with legal requirements for it to reduce its existing 60% shareholding to 49%. He indicated that his preference would be to float the shares on the stock exchange, for reasons including ensuring transparency. Telecel Globe is 94% owned by Egypt’s Orascom Telecom.

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.

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.

Zimbabwe Orders Cuts in Phone Rates

Zimbabwe’s telecommunications regulator has revised telephone tariffs downwards by up to 40 percent in a move meant to make communication affordable for ordinary Zimbabweans, APA learns here Saturday.

The Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) ordered service providers to slash telephone tariffs by between 25 and 40 percent pending the completion of an ongoing review of the charges.

The review is intended to balance the affordability of services by consumers and the viability of operators.

The move by POTRAZ comes after a massive hike in Zimbabwean telephone charges since January when service providers were first allowed to charge in foreign currency.

The average tariff before the latest POTRAZ order was 30 US cents per minute.

Zimbabwe has four telephone companies, three of which provide mobile telephone services.

The POTRAZ would see telephone tariffs declining to an average 20 US cents per minute.