Telecel still facing problems with connections to Econet

Published: 24 July 2013

Telecel Zimbabwe has issued the following statement on problems being faced with connectivity to Econet Zimbabwe:

Telecel Zimbabwe would like to inform its subscribers that it is currently facing major problems with connectivity to Econet Zimbabwe.

This problem started around July 14 and is still obtaining to date. Currently, Telecel subscribers are experiencing major challenges in calling Econet numbers. On average it is taking 20 attempts before one can get through.

This lack of connectivity has nothing to do with the Telecel network capacity. All our interconnect links have been thoroughly tested and monitored and have proved to be congestion-free.

Calls to other local destinations, including Net-One, Tel-One and Africom, as well as to international operators, and calls in the reverse direction are going through without any problem.

A simple test will confirm this position. Econet has been alerted and has confirmed it is aware of this problem and has been working on it since being notified more than a week ago.

Our call completion statistics indicate that we normally have a completion rate of above 90 percent for all Telecel to Econet traffic. When the problem started, this reduced to 37 percent.

As of Monday this week (July 22), this came down to 19 percent. As of Wednesday (July 24), this had come down even further to only 10 percent.

It is worth mentioning that Telecel and Econet are sharing the same links for call completion. It is rare to have such a low completion rate on one side of the link. The same links are used for calls from Econet to Telecel. These reverse calls are being completed without any problem.

Such statistics paint a dire picture of deterioration of service delivery well outside the expected mobile service level parameters.

The Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz), our regulator, has been notified and is looking into the issue for a speedy resolution before service delivery is further compromised. We are confident that Potraz will ensure that the appropriate service levels are back to their norm very soon.

It is our hope that Econet Zimbabwe will find a solution to this problem urgently so that we can continue delivering our renowned quality service and best value for money to all our subscribers.

We apologise for this inconvenience being suffered by our customers and ask for our customers to bear with us and, as a short term measure, to increase Telecel-to-Telecel calls, which are fully within our control, to avoid the hassles being currently experienced.

- MHPR Public Relations Consultants