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POWERTEL, a subsidiary of Zesa Holdings, has been unveiled as the country’s fourth mobile network service.

Currently, Zimbabwe, with a population of 13 million people, has three operating mobile phone service providers. These are pan-African giant Econet Wireless, Telecel and NetOne.

“This has always been Powertel’s objective to offer total telecommunications solutions to Zimbabwe and Africa at large,” said Powertel’s marketing manager, Prosper Mutswiri.

According to Potraz’s latest data, Econet Wireless has 8,5 million subscribers, Telecel 2,54 million users and state-owned NetOne 2,45 million subscribers, meaning the entire population is roughly accounted for the current operators.

However, Powertel is now set to further stoke competition within a relatively small market by becoming its fourth player.

This was made possible after it was granted a converged telecommunications licence by the regulatory body, Posts and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (Potraz), to provide both voice and Internet services in Zimbabwe.

“To keep up with competition, you also need to be innovative hence we’re not diversifying as such but we’re moving fast to fulfil the set objectives of the business as outlined on its formation,” said Mutswiri. — Ventures Africa/BH24.