Powertel Communications, the State-owned Internet Access Provider with its fingers in VoIP, broadband, VPN and prepaid electricity distribution services recently added unlimited Fibre to the Home (FTTH) packages to its broadband lineup.
Mahindra Comviva, the tech financial services vendor and Econet’s technical partner which ran point on the introduction of EcoCash recently produced a video showcasing EcoCash’s role in financial services. EcoCash is powered by the Mobiquity Money platform which is provided by Mahindra Comviva.
Egypt becomes the second country to block the service after India made the move as part of a response to concerns raised around Free Basics’ net neutrality violations. Etisalat Egypt, Facebook, and Egyptian officials haven’t mentioned the reason behind the shutdown in Egypt but there has been a lot of speculation that the country is…
2015 was no doubt the toughest year in recent memory barring 2008 when our economy was at the height of its hysterical hyperinflation episode. Indeed some have even gone so far as to claim that 2015 has even been worse than 2008 and in some ways they are right.
Econet has been contesting a directive given last year by POTRAZ to all operators to lower their voice tariffs. This adjustment led to the lowering of mobile voice calls from 23 cents a minute to 15 cents a minute at the start of 2015. This adjustment had been determined by the new LRIC pricing model…
Along with the two other mobile network operators in Zimbabwe, Econet is obliged by the telecoms regulator, POTRAZ, to ensure that all its subscribers are registered with accurate details, something that meets mobile telecoms Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements and helps monitor criminal activity on the network.
However, one other number that stood out for us related to Econet’s broadband services. According to to the analysts’ presentation which accompanied the results, Econet has 7 million broadband subscribers. Econet says this number is an improvement from the 4,7 million broadband subscribers that the operator had in the same period last year.
Local stockbrokers, Lynton Edwards have projected a 21.3% drop in revenue for the period ending February 2016 along with a 49% reduction in net profit. According to these measures, Econet’s revenue will stand at $587 million and profit for the full year will come to $35,4 million.
Econet has just reported that it has retrenched 100 employees in efforts to streamline operations in an environment where revenues have fallen.
It cannot be ignored that Telecel has been on a downward trend since 2012 if the subscriber numbers from Potraz are anything to go by. With the licence issues reaching boiling point early this year resulting in the most disruption on their timeline it is interesting to see how they will bounce back.
Zipcash continues to surprise showing steady growth while as expected postal and courier services are going down.
The latest statements from the Minister of ICT give a glimpse into what the government is thinking in terms of Infrastructure and may explain the ICT ministry’s agenda in infrastructure sharing.
In its latest effort to highlight its position as a job creator, Econet has published a full page press statement outlining its support of more than 60,000 jobs in the Zimbabwean economy. Could be it be part of Econet’s efforts to lobby for the loosening of regulation which has been handicapping the industry?
We have just concluded the first session of the MISA Governance Conference. Here is a summary of the event so far.
Apple and Samsung are planning to kill the SIM card by introducing an embedded e SIM. This would allow phone users to switch between operators at any moment
The government was offered ownership and control in Telecel Zimbabwe and it has been reported that this offer is being taken up. This comes after the Minister of ICT mentioned this offer in an interview. However, this move doesn’t seem to make sense considering some facts on the ground.