Telecel Zimbabwe in fibre deployment project

Published: 02 July 2014

Mobile network operator, Telecel says it has begun a fibre deployment project which will see the company laying its own optical fibre cable to avail more high capacity data provisioning for the network nationwide, the project is aimed at improving data speeds and connectivity to cope with increased consumer demand.

Zimbabwe's second largest mobile operator says it has already deployed fibre cable linking Harare and Gweru in the first phase of its fibre deployment project. The fibre project in Harare and Gweru which links the two cities and all the towns in between will also include an upgrade of the metro fibre network which will improve capacity and speeds for the current 3G network in and around the two cities. The project, in the long run, will also include other urban areas and cities over the next few months.

"The fibre project is about laying our own optical fibre to link major centres to improve the experience of our customers when they are using our data services. Already Telecel has linked Gweru and Harare together with the backbone sites along the way and under the next phase we expect to cover other cities and urban areas like Bulawayo," said Mrs Alice Chikumbo, Telecel Zimbabwe's transmission manager.

"The reason we are concentrating on cities and urban centres is because this is where the greatest demand and need for faster internet connectivity by customers has been identified and we are confident that once we finish this project our customers will have a vastly improved data usage experience," Chikumbo said.

Telecel subscribers can expect improved data with the higher capacity that will result from the fibre project the company is embarking on. The fibre project is expected to be completed by year end although the company has argued that improvements to the network are an ongoing effort and that the company will continue to work on improving the network both for voice and data optimisation.

All along, Telecel has been using fibre from other service providers with its own microwave radio links as backup and the company is now laying its own optical fibre cable to complement its use of shared fibre infrastructure.

- consultants

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