It’s often easy to think that Zimbabwe only has TelOne and ZOL in the internet service provider market. And you’d be forgiven for thinking that because TelOne and ZOL are the ones that make the headlines often. However, there is another who I think makes up the Big Three. I am of course talking about Dandemutande parent company of Utande and the ISP has recently launched an LTE package to rival that of ZOL’s Wibroniks and TelOne’s Blaze.
What is Utande offering?
For those who were expecting pay as you go style packages I am afraid there aren’t any. Utande’s LTE service is coming out of the gate with uncapped packages only.
| Data allocation | Speed (Mbps) | Price (US$) per month | |
| Supermax | uncapped | 5 | 125.00 |
| Megamax | uncapped | 10 | 210.00 |
| Gigamax | uncapped | 15 | 295.00 |
To sign up for Utande LTE you are given the option of either purchsing the router outright or you can rent the equipment much like with VSAT.
| Purchase option | Rental option | |
| Upfront Charge | US$229.00 | – |
| Monthly rental | – | US$25.00 |
| Installation | US$75.00 | US$75.00 |
| Router Charge | US$40.00 | US$40.00 |
Areas covered
At launch the following areas will be covered by Utande LTE:
Eastlea, Belvedere, Graniteside, Hillside, Ridge View, Avondale, Monovale, Sunningdale, Highlands, Ardbennie, Mbare, Sunningdale, Southerton, Lochinvar, Highfield, Willowvale, Houghton Park, Workington, Malvern, Prospect, Mainway Meadows, Grobbie Park, Eastlea, Athlone, Msasa, Greendale, Hatfield, Chadcombe, Queensdale, Highlands
How does Utande LTE compare to ZOL Wibrokins and TelOne Blaze?
In terms of service coverage, Utande LTE is coming out of the box with a lot more places than those gazetted by TelOne on its service description of Blaze. It ranks a little closer to ZOL’s Wibroniks in this respect and does too in terms of price when we are looking at ZOL’s uncapped office Wibroniks packages.
| Utande LTE | ZOL Wibroniks |
| Supermax: 5 Mbps US$125.00 | WiBroniks Nano Office 7Mbps US$125 |
| Megamax 10Mbps US$210 | WiBroniks Micro Office 10Mbps US$185 |
| Gigamax 15Mbps US$295 | WiBroniks Small Office 15Mbps US$295 |
The difference only comes in the middle band but it’s like for like elsewhere. I think the addition of Utande LTE is good for the market, as far as I am aware TelOne hasn’t yet reintroduced the Blaze product to the market. If ZOL is still offering Wibroniks equipment to new customers then I think Utande coming in adds some much-needed competition.
The only knock at the moment is that Utande is not offering pay-as-you-go style bundles or data offerings. But hopefully, this is something Dandemutande has in the works and I think that will be one of the two additional tests for the service. The first being price and the second being of course performance.
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