ZOL connecting 80 new fibre internet customers every week. Total subs 3,500

L.S.M Kabweza Avatar

liquid-telecomSo a few days ago when we posted the download of the POTRAZ quarterly report on the state of internet services in Zimbabwe, the first comment on the article was:

I am tickled by these figures! 285 Active VSAT terminals? really let’s be serious here. 1741 Fibre Links lol. ZOL did a promotion where they ran fibre into your house for free just in case you wanted it

The report has the total number of fibre subscriptions in the country at 1,741 up from 1,722 subscriptions the previous quarter. Essentially, in 3 months, the statistics by POTRAZ were showing that fibre connections in the country had grown by just 19 new subscriptions. Unbelievable when you are in Harare and can see all the activity on the ground right?

So today, at the launch of their new entry-level fibre package, we asked the ZOL CEO why these numbers don’t make sense, and what the numbers are their side. Marandure, the chief at ZOL, said that on their end, they are connecting 80 new customers each week. Their total number of Fibre To The Home subscriptions right now stands at around 3,500, he said.

The POTRAZ report is of course a 2014 Q3 document,  is a September 2014 report. Now assuming the company has been connecting 80 customers each week for the entire 4th quarter and this January, that would mean some 1,500 new connections. Subtract that from the 3,500 connections they have now and you have 2,000 as at the end of the third quarter. And that’s just ZOL alone. They are not the only ones doing fibre so what about YoAfrica, PowerTel, iWayAfrica, Telecontract, Africom, TelOne and Utande?

We think the statistics of the sector are a very important thing to get right.

12 comments

  1. Batsie

    Ask them if those are ACTIVE subscribers or just connected subscribers.

  2. Mataruse

    Those figures are overstated, i can tell you they have connected many surburbs bluffhill malborough westgate etc, if those are the 80 per week they are counting as subscribers then the potraz stats are close to being correct. those are just connected subscribers and not the actual users of the fibre internet. You should have asked them about how many active subs they had in September 2014.

    1. fourwallsinaroom

      Ok lets do an excercise. ZOL and Liquid Combined have a sales team of about 10-15. Go to the offices and count. lets assume per week each sales person connects (that is goes where fibre is running already, seals the deal and gets the link commissioned) 5 – 10 people. thats a minimum of 50 new links a week 2600 a year. liquid has been operating for more than two years under the connection free for customers closer than 500m. Also consider when ZOL had a fight with Aficom and Aquiva they migrated all the customers to fibre where possible. i know this because i was offered this deal at the office i was working out of. Lets try think about this logically and accept that POTRAZ did not do a good job period.

      1. Ben

        You must be a ZOL employee, the way you are getting so emotional. Uptake of fibre was low, period, lets wait and see the effects of the ZOL promotion

        1. fourwallsinaroom

          Ben I can 100% guarantee you I do not work for ZOL. If there was any emotion its because of the ignorance that some of us are indulging here. That said and for the 100th time here on techzim anyone want my recommendation for an ISP go and get iWAY especially if you are getting WiMax. Have had them for two years and using Africom as my last mile the difference between iWAY and ZOL WiMAX is night and day. The iWAY fair usage policy is incredibly simple to understand! There isnt one!

  3. mishelyn

    The Econet syndrome spreads to its divisions ,these guys overstate their numbers 9million subscribers turns out its 6.5million..well I think potraz is right ,for the pure reason that they do not need to lie ,they have no benefit in underestimation of figures ,but Econet zol,econet liquid have a marketing reason to do so ..zimbos don’t just switch ,to make matters worse the areas being spoken off bluffhill,mabelreign,malborough,this places are mostly tenant occupied now..which tenant in this day and age and the way our economy is right now has time to shif to zol if I had a telone or africom the answer is NOONE.zero ,they just dug our front gardens for nothing ..maybe its for those post Mugabe generation isu we are looking for money and not finding it why waste time on something that spends my money because of facebook,or emails maya..

    1. fourwallsinaroom

      Go to Milton Park, Belgravia and Avondale and take a peak at how many links are active. Free switch from WiMax to GPON was done two or so years ago and at the time if you really complained there was a $70 package that was never advertised but offered. I am not going to argue a point I know for a fact. Also note that there are people who do not pay rent (think houses bought before dollar which had mortgages reduced to zero)
      Your reasoning is akin to saying no one in Zimbabwe has the money for DSTV premium, they only have Wiztech or the recent Open View HD box. Plenty of households spend plus $200 on their DSTV + Internet per month. If this was not the case the likes of iWAY would be broke considering their cheapest package is $99 further to this DSTV would not have a premium package in Zim.

      How many WiMax kits can you count in Harare? What is the cheapest WiMax package you can get in Harare? Do the maths and think if you were paying for WiMAX and someone offered you fibre for free installation would you change or not.

  4. Anonymous

    ZOL does not understand numbers. period . someone is being given a ride in a paper plane. The 80 homes per week are pure fiction ….and what’s worse is the promise that at 80 per week, you will reach 100,000 in a year. 52 x 80 remains 4,160…… nowhere near 100,000. Why Techzim misses anomalies in such pronouncements by companies amuses me.

    1. Anthony Somerset

      i think they mean homes in the GPON service area – not neccesarily connected customers

      having fibre available to you and being connected to it are 2 seperate things and perhaps got mixed together?

      1. Anonymous

        Lol ! so we should all celebrate our factory buildings that are lying idle in Bulawayo and elsewhere since 2002, not the capacity utilisation.

        Houston, Houston ….we must return to base . …so they are connecting Fibre to The Homes into 95% of homes that are not using it! Clever !!!!

      2. Anonymous

        What a tangled web we weave if ’tis to deceive we seek !!!!

  5. t bone

    awsome wanna b part of zol

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