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Econet Zimbabwe Receives Equipment From Ericsson
Published Jun 29, 2009
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Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has received a massive shipment of equipment from Ericsson of Sweden which, when installed,will result in the complete elimination of shortage of lines in the country.
The shipment which is made up of base stations,and core network equipment,is expected to be fully installed by the end of July.
Econet,which uses two suppliers for its network in Zimbabwe after splitting its service area into a Northern and Southern region,plans to ship equipment valued at more than $200 million over the next few months from Ericsson,and ZTE of China.
Econet Chief Executive Officer Mr. Douglas Mboweni confirmed the arrival of the equipment saying:
“We have been waiting for the arrival of these shipments,because as you know it takes quite some time,for a company,like Ericssons to manufacture this type of equipment,once they receive an order.
This equipment will all go into the Northern region, of our network”.
Mr Mboweni described the impressive shipment as only the first part of the shipments that are due in the next few months.
“This equipment is less than 15% of what we have in the pipeline,because we are working towards taking the network to 5 million, by the end of next year,” he said.
Equipment for the southern region, which is supplied by ZTE,has also began to arrive,along with Chinese construction contractors who are responsible for installation.
The bulk of the $94 million order from China, is expected to arrive before the end of July,with installation taking upto the end of the year to complete.
Meanwhile,Mr Mboweni has said that efforts to clear the backlog of prepaid lines were now at a very advanced stage.
Econet is currently selling more than 30 000 Buddie lines per week,whilst contract lines are available on demand.
He said that queues were gradually beginning to disappear outside Econet shops,and that the black market had also collapsed.
Mr. Mboweni said that his company was confident that shortage of lines was now a thing of the past.
“By the end of next month,it will be possible to buy a Buddie line without queues,” he said.
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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