Telecel Zimbabwe: A strategy & operations update from CEO Mawindi

We’re just from a Telecel Zimbabwe press conference, where relatively new CEO, Francis Mawindi, was addressing local journalists, introducing himself and giving an update of what his company has accomplished so far as well as what remains to be done this year as part of their strategic plan.

We have posted the full speech he gave at the conference, but seeing not all us have the time to read the lengthy speech, here are the main point summarised:

• As CEO his main objective is to make Telecel the most innovative telco in the region and key to this is customer experience
• Telecel’s main contribution to the country since dollarisation has been to make mobile comms affordable to ordinary people. “the best possible service at the lowest possible cost.”
• A USD 70 million investment the company got several months ago has allowed it to expand its mobile network. The company expects by end of year to have 200 new sites come live, totalling 575 base station sites.
• By end of the year about 85% of the country’s population will be able to access Telecel’s network
• Telecel has 12 retail outlets country-wide. By the end of the year it expects to have 18.
• Telecel will commission a new call center in coming weeks as part of effort to improve customer experience. (During QnA Telecel clarified the call center will sit a total 90 customer support representatives at a time.)
• Telecel has commissioned a new intelligent network (IN) management system that will enable the company to provide ‘advanced’ value-added services. Unlike the old, the new platform is “capable of taking on countless new applications that can enhance subscriber services”
• Telecel plans to expand corporate social responsibility assistance to educational institutions at selected secondary and tertiary institutions.
• In addition to sponsorship in the arts (e.g. HIFA) Telecel has started sponsoring journalist organisations.
• Telecel looks forward to the regulatory authority POTRAZ’s making network infrastructure sharing mandatory. The company believes in “infrastructure on a reciprocal basis”.
• Telecel has met some of its targets for the year and expects to meet all by end of year.

Other information disclosed at the press conference during the Question and Answer session include the following:

• As at end of August 2012, the company had a total 2.2 million active subscribers.
• In April this year, for the first time, data revenue exceeded SMS revenue and the trend has continued.
• Telecel is happy that POTRAZ has started making some progress utilising the Universal Service Fund fund to install passive infrastructure.
• At any single time Telecel, an estimated 20% of the power feeding base stations is supplied by generators
• On the Telecel’s shareholding issue, Mawindi said the shareholders are committed to addressing the issue of indigenisation is “being addressed right now” and Telecel will be sharing information once the issue has been resolved.

Here’s a link to Francis Mawindi’s full speech.