ECONET's 3G gets the nod

ECONET Wireless says that 3G or GPRS will begin within the next four to eight weeks after regulatory approval was granted.

Econet’s chief business development officer Elvis Gwanzura said the GPRS has been installed for more than a year but had all along been awaiting regulatory approval for the allocation of frequencies.

He said that 3G, which was another service layer could be introduced in the first quarter of next year.

3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment.

Gwanzura said that on the whole Zimbabwe is behind the rest of the region when it comes to the percentage of the population with cell phones.

Zimbabwe’s penetration rate was only 10 percent while the average mobile phone penetration rate was expected to reach 30 percent by 2010. He said in South Africa there were 30 million mobile phone subscribers.

He said the convergence of technology in the telecommunications, computer and media industries had resulted in personal mobile multi-media services.

On how long it would take for Zimbabwe to catch up with at least regional standards, he said it depended on the money available. If the money were available then it would probably take 12 to 24 months.

Zimbabwe also has the lowest tariffs in the region with calls per minute costing less than US$0,03 cents compared to the regional average of US$0,25.


Herald