(Ecofin agency) - High -quality telecoms services has exploded in Zimbabwe since 2020.Econet Wireless and Netone investments to answer them.The two rival companies target rural areas where access to 4G remains low.

Econet Wireless and Netone mobile phone operators are currently engaged in a telecom network extension race.The two companies are aware of the challenges inherent in the achievement of new market niches by their telecoms services.

On the side of the private operator Econet, an installation program of 130 new telecom stations has just been completed as well as the upgrading of several others from 3G to 4G.At the competitor Netone, a mobile subsidiary of the historic operator Telona, investments relate to the deployment of 340 new 3G and 4G telecom stations, as well as the installation of 5G equipment.

Last week, during the inauguration of a telecom station in the locality of Wedza, Raphael Mushanawani, the director general of Netone, indicated that the investment currently engaged in the extension of the network will provide high speedand financial inclusion to more people across the country.A few days before him, Kezito Makuni, the director of operations of Econet Wireless, argued that the network extension carried out by the company aimed to give the populations "a real experience of the digital life".

Quality telecoms demand has exploded in Zimbabwe since 2020.According to data from the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Potraz), Voice Voice on mobile, between the first quarters 2020 and 2021, increased from 1.33 billion minutes to 1.56 billion minutes.Mobile Data traffic has also increased by comparing these two periods, from 6,661 terabits to 21,865 terabits.If demand for high -speed telecoms services has increased in urban areas, it also believes in rural areas where 4G represented only 1.83% of the population on March 31, 2021.

Through the network extension that Econet Wireless and Netone is currently carrying out, it is almost 60% of the population that the two telecom operators want to integrate into the 4G network.A rural population that represents new business opportunities both in the Voice, Data and Mobile Money segment, current main areas of growth of the local telecom market.

Muriel Edjo

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