TelOne rolls out ADSL Internet in Mutare, Marondera and Gweru

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TelOne Runhare HouseTelOne Acting MD, Lawrence Nkala, revealed in an article posted by the Sunday News this week that TelOne has expanded ADSL services to more cities and towns successfully. The new locations that now have ADSL internet are Mutare, Marondera and Gweru. This is addition to Harare and Bulawayo, the capital city and second largest respectively, that have had ADSL since last year. TelOne is also reportedly working to introduce the internet service in Norton, Chegutu, Kadoma, Kwekwe and Victoria Falls.

The sole fixed line operator started offering ADSL broadband internet services commercially to consumers in 2011 after suspending wholesale ADSL to Internet providers, essentially locking them out of the ADSL market. The government operator subsequently offered the lowest priced internet service in the country, starting at US $30 a month for 10 Gigabyte data at a download speed of 256 Kbps.

Limited infrastructure has however made rollout of the broadband internet service very slow. In December last year, the Zimbabwe telecoms regulatory authority, POTRAZ, revealed that TelOne active landlines had decreased by tens of thousands in just two years to 337,881, a result of infrastructure capacity issues as well as disconnections of overdue accounts carried over from the Zimbabwe dollar hyperinflation era. Several months after launch, TelOne had just connected 2,600 ADSL customers by December 2011.

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13 comments

  1. Cde_Kunakirwa

    And to make headlines in this day and age that one has rolled out ADSL is an insult to modern technology. I am surprised that the technology was not there already in this place and the headlines these days should be talking of having introduced MPLS or other modern technology. 

    1. macdchip

      how about this, £362 million to install adsl in rural Britain, is this also insult to modern technology:

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/16/rural-broadband-boost

      1. Cde_Kunakirwa

        I could not find any reference to ADSL technology in that article, please help me to locate it by pasting a quotation of such reference.  The technology used is not so clear, they are probably talking about optical fibre

        1. macdchip

           what it means is that most rural Britain affected was on dial up networks. This was dull to the fact that these areas were not making a business sense for providers coz of low population. Its either you have dial, or broadband (adsl)

          here is another link:

          http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/networking/2004/04/13/rural-areas-face-long-broadband-delays-39151493/

        2. Magneto

           @Cde_Kunakirwa:disqus  ADSL is still very much used form of connectivity across the developed and developing world. What has been the trend is that we have seen ADSL backbone infrastructure being upgraded to offer more and more bandwidth using networks such as FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet). A case is BT’s FTTC rollout
          http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/20/bt_fttc_rollout_73_exchanges/

  2. JamesM

    $30 buck for 10 GIG sounds tempting and if you can get away with that in Zim it means you are a shielded monopoly. But given TelOne’s crumbling fixed-line infrastructure that deal may not mean much. Wireless telcos Econet, Telecel, Africom, etc should aggressively seize this opportunity and offer a better wireless data service which is reasonably priced. But then again when Econet is prevented from building a cable hooking-up to undersea bandwidth on Africa’s eastern coastline, aagh! Rwendo rwurefu vanhuwe!

    1. macdchip

       this is a first, who is blocking Econet from building that eastern link?

      1. john jenera

        Its a first to you, we all knew about it a long time ago

    2. Garikai Dzoma

       I tested Telone’s ucapped package for four months and I can assure you their service is excellent. The speeds are fair with their per connection speed around 256kbps.

  3. Sadombo

    Thumbs up to TelOne for bringing an affordable service to the people. 10 Gig for $30 is good for domestic consumption, provided there is no VOD streaming & too much downloads

  4. Tatenda

    well good work telone but im still concerned with the coverage of your ADSL.The current coverage by telone will show that they are focusing on the CBD and low density areas..whether we from the low density areas or the high fensity we are all valued customers.

  5. Developer

    @975d4e81e739d9fdb6006fdb91c7c7e1:disqus  i was of the impression that Econet completed a fibre link to undersea cables near Durban….someone correct me.  Also refer to http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2011/02/zimbabwe-connects-to-undersea-broadband-network/  and 
    http://www.techzim.co.zw/2010/12/econet-connects-to-seacom/ 

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