The ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier Services is working on an ICT policy that would compel operators to share infrastructure to reduce costs and be able to provide reliable services at affordable prices.
In an interview with NewsDay, Liquid Telecom Zimbabwe managing director, Wellington Makamure said the company was waiting for the outcome of the ICT framework on infrastructure sharing.
Makamure said Liquid Telecom Zimbabwe has invested over $150 million in projects since 2010, rolling out a total of 10 500km of fibre.
“There is so much that we need to do, but it could be another similar figure but there is a lot of things that we need to look at much closer, for example infrastructure sharing, how it will come out. In a way this has slowed us down,” he said.
“It is a positive move, but only because we want to see how it comes out. We haven’t even covered as much as we want to, we have done 10 500km of fibre more than all the other players combined, but there is so much to do. In the rural areas not much has been covered, but we want to see how the policy comes out.”
Makamure said Liquid Telecom Zimbabwe fibre has capacity of up to 40 gigabytes per second (Gbps) on its main routes against the total Zimbabwe utilisation capacity of 19,7Gbps.
“We plan to build Gweru-Zvishavane. We still haven’t done Harare via Ruwa, Rusape into Mutare then Harare to Nyamapanda. Now we are working in Bulawayo, we have some access point in Mutare and Masvingo, but not much. There is so much that we need to do in Bulawayo and also so much that we need to do in Harare,” he said.
“So we want to see how the ICT policy comes out and then we can only develop to grow based on what’s on the ground.”
Makamure said it was difficult to predict, as there were so many dynamics that have to be balanced such as “from the regulations the ICT policy some of this make you to start checking on how much you can do”.
He, however, said Liquid Telecom Zimbabwe access network has passed over 48 000 premises and would soon add on another 5 000 premises.
The government is in the process of establishing a framework for infrastructure sharing, which will compel both public and private companies in telecommunications to share infrastructure.
The framework is currently awaiting approval at the Attorney-General’s Office.
The framework is a constructive input between the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe and the telecommunication companies TelOne, NetOne, Econet and Telecel among others to regulate the industry.
News Day