PowerTel expands mobile broadband coverage to catch up to competition

Staff Writer Avatar

We recently got an update from PowerTel the progress the company has been making on the mobile broadband front. The last time we wrote about the company in 2011, they had held an event where they announced they where working to expand the network to cover smaller cities and towns, and that they were preparing to launch CDMA voice services.

In the current update, PowerTel sales and marketing manager, Willard Nyagwande, says the company has recently switched on mobile broadband services in Kadoma, Ruwa, Norton and Chinhoyi and that they are targeting to have all other major towns covered by mid this year. Work is going according to Nyagwande to have full coverage for mobile internet services in Chitungwiza, Masvingo, Mutare, Marondera ,Rusape, Bindura, Chegutu, Kariba, Victoria Falls, and Hwange by June.

According to Nyagwande, the voice project is also nearing launch. This particular product, which will be launched in the coming months,  is in many ways similar to the Africom and Brodacom voice offerings. Nyagwande wouldn’t give any exact dates of when the the company will make the service commercially available. He however explained that the voice service will be targeted more at the business customer than the home consumer.

A subsidiary of the government owned power company Zesa holdings,  PowerTel Communications was the first telecoms operator to start offering mobile broadband services commercially in Zimbabwe back in 2007. The company was however leapfrogged by other internet providers and the mobile operators, namely Econet, Telecel and Africom. PowerTel has however tried to catch up with the current network expansion programme. Along with TelOne and Liquid Telecom, the company remains one of the major backbone fibre operators in the country.

,

4 comments

  1. Kashumbakedande

    for as long they target large firms only, they will loose out, the ordinary user is also interested in cheap products! wake up powertel , yu are wasting resources with your fibre lying idle.

  2. Bhinikwa

    Large firms guarantee you money so that you expand further to cater for individuals…its the called the business end of telecoms.

  3. Want faster internet!

    NOOOO!!!!…More people on the already congested and slow network! 🙁

  4. Beki73

    only half of Bulawayo is covered with 3 base stations at the usual places, NRZ building, montrose studios and Nkulumane shopping complex. when is the rest of the city going to be covered. finish what you started before venturing elsewhere

2023 © Techzim All rights reserved. Hosted By Cloud Unboxed