Mobile phone boom eludes Zimbabwe as crisis bites
June 26th, 2006 by ncho
as use of wireless phones increase across Africa, Zimbabwe lingers….
Zimbabwe offers a sharp contrast to the rest of Africa, where mobile phone use is spreading rapidly as an alternative to unreliable and expensive fixed lines.
But foreign currency shortages have hamstrung network expansion and growth in Zimbabwe’s mobile phone sector, capping penetration at around 5 percent of the population, compared to 70 percent in South Africa or around 40 percent in Namibia.
Middle Eastern, South African and European firms are scrambling for a foothold on the rest of continent, with South Africa’s MTN
recently offering $5.53 billion for Dubai-based Investcom . But Zimbabwe, crippled by economic crisis, is different. The country has three mobile operators, Econet Wireless, state-owned Net*One and Telecel Zimbabwe, majority-owned by Orascom Telecom’s
Telecel International. The government has failed to attract foreign investors to pump money into debt-saddled Net*One and fixed-line operator TelOne.
….
Unlike in neighboring South Africa, Botswana or Namibia where a customer buys a SIM card over the counter, Zimbabweans have to wait for months before SIM cards come on the market, always resulting in a stampede.
Most of Zimbabwe’s users are on the pay-as-you-go system, too poor to qualify for contract services.
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