TelOne plans pre-paid service

teloneHarare Bureau
TELONE is negotiating a $98 million investment deal with a Chinese firm which if concluded would see it launching a pre-paid platform for landline telephone charges by July 2015.
Secretary for Information Communication and Technology, Postal and Courier Services Engineer Sam Kundishora said the negotiations with the Chinese firm for TelOne were at an advanced stage and expressed optimism that by the end of this year they would have sealed the deal.

Eng Kundishora said this on Friday while giving oral evidence before a parliamentary portfolio committee on Public Accounts that had invited them to explain on observations made by the Auditor General Mildred Chiri in her 2011 report for the state entity.

“We are in serious discussions with a Chinese company to invest in TelOne to the tune of $98 million. One of the conditions raised by the Chinese firm was that of legacy debt TelOne accrued when it was unbundled in 2000. We have since agreed with the Ministry of Finance that it be warehoused in that ministry,” said Eng Kundishora.

TelOne’s legacy debt were loans accrued to the then Posts and Telecommunication company which was eventually unbundled to form three companies namely TelOne, Zimpost and Posts and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority.

The debt is around $300 million and included both local and foreign financial institutions that lent money to the then PTC.
Managing director for TelOne, Chipo Mutasa said the pre-paid platform would go a long way in their effort to enhance revenue collection as it is currently owed in excess of $19 million by subscribers.

“Despite the slight improvement in our revenue collection we still believe it would be better if we are on pre-paid platform. We have set July 2015 as the effective date for the pre-paid system,” said Mutasa.

She said they were encountering challenges in recovering money owed to them by parastatals which she said now stood at around $45 million.
TelOne, she said, had entered into some offset agreements with some of them where they would use their services as part of liquidating the debt.
These include Zesa Holdings, and Zimbabwe National Water Authority among others.

She said Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation had been giving them headache but would be getting tough on the national broadcaster to ensure that it liquidates its debt.

Mutasa said TelOne was slowly moving back to viability after going through some recession over the years.

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