Zimbabwean Operator Boosts Diesel Backups for Base Stations
Econet Zimbabwe has ordered 98 diesel electricity generators from Chinese suppliers to help boost the reliability of its mobile network in the face of continuing electricity shortages in the country. The company will have over 200 of its 320 base stations supplied by diesel backups when the order is delivered.
"Econet considers the non-availability of reliable Zesa power as one of the biggest problems facing the telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe," said Econet CEO, Douglas Mboweni. "Each time there is a major power failure in an area, the company is forced to shut down the base station, effectively cutting off thousands of people from service."
Zimbabwe is experiencing disruptive power blackouts blamed on the inability of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) to meet domestic demand and a critical shortage of foreign currency to import electricity from neighbouring countries. The country imports about 35 per cent of its power needs from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia.
Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the company earlier this month, Econet Wireless founder Strive Masiyiwa had said that his only regret was that the foreign currency shortages and other problems in the country like power had made it difficult for the company to provide the quality of service the customers deserve.
The company has also resumed network expansion work which was suspended during the recent election troubles. The company expects to complete the work in November and expand its capacity to 1.2 million GSM lines. Ericsson expanding the core network which is made up of the switching systems, whilst ZTE is supplying radio base stations for the southern part of the country.
Econet Wireless is the largest operator in the country by subscriber numbers. According to estimates from the Mobile World, the operator ended last September with 713,000 customers and a market share of 56%. The country has a population penetration level of just over 10%.
Posted to the site on 17th July 2008
