TelOne recovers $90m debts

Published: 21 January 2014

Zimbabwe's sole landline network operator, TelOne, says it collected $90 million out of a targeted $300 million last year under its debt recovery programme.

Prior and following the introduction of the multi-currency system - dominated by the United States dollar - four years ago, the telecoms company had been hit by massive subscriber default.

Chipo Mtasa said the debts had been "accumulating during the transition era in 2009."

Last year, the fixed line operator wrote off overdue debts amounting to $80 million owed by residential subscribers.

It said the bills cancellation was "in line with the prevailing liquidity challenges obtaining in the country."

"In view of the cash-flow challenges currently facing our clients across the market, TelOne is pleased to announce a relief package to all its clients," said TelOne.

In August last year, the group launched a door-to-door debt collection campaign to recover over $300 million owed by its customers.

"The debt collection campaign is a nationwide campaign aimed at strengthening efforts by the credit control department. We are aiming at recovering $50 million from debtors during the next quarter," Mtasa said then.

"This will help the company with the much-needed working capital to fund network expansion projects that will see TelOne deliver more products and services," she said.

Fixed line subscriber numbers in Zimbabwe have fallen from 325 000 to 301 650 according to statistics from the Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.

To counter the mobile service providers, TelOne introduced ADSL broadband as a move to restore its database.

Increased competition from mobile operators and companies offering Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony services are among reasons for the declining subscriber numbers.

From November 11 2013 to December 31 2013, TelOne has been running a promotional campaign Mtasa said has assisted the group to revive itself running under the title "Talk, Surf and Win Promotion".

"We have witnessed an improvement in the number of clients in our database because of the introduction of data services and the just ended competition. So far we have recorded an increase of clients by 40 percent," she said.
- dailynews

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