Telecoms infrastructure is back in the news again. No, it isn’t another loaded press release from an operator. Instead, we have some words from the Minister of ICT, Honourable Supa Mandiwanzira.
We managed to ask him a couple of questions regarding his views on infrastructure rollout at a national level as well as its distribution, with a direct reference to national fibre rollout. This was on the heels of TelOne’s launch of its Fibre to the Home service.
Referencing the remarks that he had shared in his address at the TelOne launch, Minister Mandiwanzira pointed out how the State should take the lead role in the deployment of broadband infrastructure, while giving private operators the opportunity to offer last mile connectivity.
He also pointed out how it is dangerous for broadband infrastructure to be in the hand of private entities and individuals because of the inevitable reliance the country will have on internet based technology.
You can listen to the interview from the audio link below.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/200125958″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
Share
Home
8 comments
This is such rubbish… just the control freaks at it again
as usual
As it stands, our gvt do not have capacity to do this. What is needed is first for the gvt to do a capacity consulting from all interested parties.
Then they need to build that by a way of oversubscrition by a factor of at ten. So lets say they do there survey and find out the need 10gigs interlinks from others, they should then build there infrustracture to support at least 100gigs.
This allows them to handle future growth plus unexpected spikes.
Having said that, we are talking of a gvt which doesnt know how to put its ICT boys in order and follow corporate rules. Pple are still earning mega salaries for doing nothing.
Mandiwanzira must walk the talk by making Netone, Telone and PowerTel the powerhouse of IT in Zim. If he cannot do that then definately l see a lot of private firms(read econet) being intimidated to part away with their infrastructure.
guys next time don’t gruel a respectable man like that. don’t think he knows much about whats happening with data prices in the US the way tech zim guys do… hayas.. dont do that…
in some way i can see what Supa wants to do however in ict whoeva has the best infrastructure and service rules unfortunately the backdrop of this is the high price of data in which if telone gets its house in order which it seems to be doing we should see a huge drop in prices not this 2c per mb rubbish……
The minister is still excited by his appointment. How and when does he foresee Govt being able to develop any infrastructure when more than 85% of the National Budget is currently unable to meet salary commitments? leave any business that has the capital to develop infrastructure do it without fear of compulsory sharing. Mr.Minister, the IT revolution is unstoppable, focus on other areas, IT will find its way.
The job of politicians is to talk hot air and Supa is just demonstrating it. Do you remember the CIO taking people’s cameras to prevent people taking pictures at the airport only to find that miraculously the pictures were already on the Internet. Ask ZIMRA how they can charge duty on online ebook purchases? To my fellow Zimbabweans let the politicians talk to their heart’s content and they will and let us do our own thing with technology. It TelOne, NetOne and Powertel can catch up well and good but if they cannot well and good!!!!!!
From a technology and cost point of view this can be done for a few million dollars, we have been pushing this model for the last 10 years but the problem is nobody listens or understands how to do it, is has become fashionable to “talk tech” without actually knowing what you are talking about …..
@info, what is that model you have been pushing for 10 years? Where have you been pushing it, at ZBC or at Econet? If you are the only one who knows and understands the model, no wonder you may be spending your whole life without making money on the model?