State controlled telecommunications company, TelOne earlier this week commissioned 10 base stations around Chitungwiza which will power the Blaze LTE service for at least 6000 clients.
The commissioning is the first phase of a bigger project by TelOne which targets to roll out 40 base stations countrywide.
Speaking during the commissioning ceremony held at Chitungwiza Town Centre, TelOne managing director, Chipo Mtasa told gatherers the project was nimbly completed through infrastructure sharing with other telecommunication players.
“Today is particularly special because we are launching a service that demonstrates the importance of the strategic thrust on infrastructure sharing that the Government through our parent Ministry has been placing emphasis on for several years now. I’m so glad that through riding on towers owned by NetOne, Telecel and Econet, we have been able to deploy this service here in Chitungwiza much quicker and at a lower cost,” Mtasa said.
She acknowledged that the parastatal had been struggling to provide quality network for a while due vandalism but noted it may have been a blessing in disguise as the new infrastructure will not be attractive to network thieves.
“I am truly humbled by the presence of our Chitungwiza customers, who have come to rally behind us as we commission our Blaze LTE for the community. Indeed, thank you very much for being loyal to our brand. I know we have struggled to give to the best service in the past mostly due to network vandalism which has ravaged our copper network. Chitungwiza is one of the areas that had been hit hard and we were struggling to cope. It is therefore such relief to be launched a more advanced technology which will not be attractive to network thieves who are wreaking havoc elsewhere,” added Mtasa.
The service allows a client to connect up to 10 devices on an LTE MiFi modem and up to 32 devices on an indoor modem. The geolocked LTE line will cost US$ 1 and current data packages for Blaze start from ZW$1349.
