This was revealed by the company’s new Chief Executive Officer, Francis Mawindi at a press briefing in Harare today.
Mawindi said the company had received a capital injection of $70 million, making it possible for them to extend their reach in terms of access to network to around 85 percent by the end of this year.
“By the end of the year we expect to have completed the installation of base stations at more than 200 new sites, bringing to more than 575 the number of base station sites we have altogether, Mawindi said.
He said the company was targeting a reach of up to 95 percent by next year, which he said was a good coverage for any given country.
The company, Mawindi said, was locating its base stations closer to electricity supply to ensure uninterrupted power, adding back up batteries and generators would be also provided.
The expansion programme, according to Mawindi, went beyond the geographical aspect only, as the company had also increased capacity for their voice and data services.
“We are also putting in back-up transmission links, so that, if a link fails, the standby link can be used, thus minimising any downtime and facilitating continuous network availability,” he said.
Telecel was also increasing its retail outlets across the country from 12 to 16, with more having been planned for 2013.
We are expanding our retail network as well. We have 12 retail outlets country-wide. By the end of the year we expect to have 18. We have planned more for next year.
“In addition to establishing more retail outlets we are in the process of establishing a new third generation customer care centre that will have interactive voice response, known as IVR, and the capacity to deal quickly with customer care queries, whether these come to us over the phone, by e‑mail, by messaging or by text message. The new call centre is due to be opened shortly, he said.
As at August 2012, Telecel had around 2.2 million active subscribers and has projections to reach 2.7 million by December.
Mawindi brings in a wealth of experience, having been in the United States of America where he worked for global telecommunications giants such as Sprint and Verizon two of the largest mobile operators in the USA and France Telecom Orange among others.
Post published in: Business