NetOne Commissions A Record 261 LTE/4G Base Stations

Zimbabwe’s second largest mobile network operator, Netone has emerged from oblivion to establish itself as a major force to reckon in the domestic telecommunications industry after successfully commissioning a record 261 Long-Term-Evolution/4G base stations across Zimbabwe in the last quarter of 2016.

By Shingie Lev Muringi 

Building advanced telecommunication infrastructure ushered a new era for Netone whose fortunes previously relied on servicing government officials.

The giant mobile network operator now offers fast 4G connectivity to its customers across Zimbabwe’s urban cities backed by 731 third generation (3G) base stations offering equally good connectivity in rural areas.

This resilient and robust network infrastructure is the dragon force behind NetOne’s hot selling OneFusion packages which have been causing quite a stir in the market since the current Managing Director – Mr Brian Mutandiro took over the reigns from the beleaguered former boss Reward Kangai.

The awakening of NetOne can be further accredited to Mutandiro’s cutting edge managerial skills which include placing the right people on the right positions to efficiently execute their duties much to the operators advantage. Three such good examples of how Mutandiro has strategically positioned his team members include the recent appointment of George Manyaya as PR Executive, a renowned public relations strategist whose work speaks for itself from his Mbada Diamonds days. His few weeks in office so far has already seen NetOne increasing its visibility on the frontier, signaling a new era for the government owned mobile network operator.

Brian Mutandiro also seem to have handed a free role to another award wining marketing strategist, Juliet Ziswa who is heading NetOne’s marketing department. “NetOne is no longer a boring parastatal to many or a network for the old people only. If you still think that way, then its time to revisit your thoughts us” said Ziswa during the OneFusion launch in June last year.

To handle the demanding and technical requirements of NetOne’s ever growing subscriber base, Brain Mutandiro has invested his trust into Darlington Gutu, a dynamic telecommunications engineer as the parastatal’s Chief Technology Officer. Gutu oversaw the erection of NetOne’s modern pine tree base stations, an innovative way of building telecom infrastructure in highly populated suburbs to increase reliable service provision.

NetOne has since then closed the gap in terms of market share as the state owned MNO now commands a respectable second position behind perennial leaders Econet to sit at 36.6%. Econet leads with 49.4% and Telecel trailing in third position with 14% as shown in the below figure extracted from the 4th Quarter Sector Performance Report released by POTRAZ early this year: