VIVA Mobile says it has inked a deal with a mobile operator, but will only publicise it at a later date, pending the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) coming up with a virtual networking operators (VNOs) licensing policy.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
VIVA Mobile is a VNO and would become Zimbabwe’s first registered one should the Potraz VNO Licensing Framework Document become policy.
A VNO is a wireless communications services provider that does not own wireless network infrastructure and piggybacks on existing mobile network operators (MNOs) to operate.
VIVA Mobile founder and CEO, Dzidzai Chidumba told NewsDay recently that the announcement of them working with mobile operators was dependent on Potraz implementing the licensing policy.
“We have an agreement in principle with one of the operators, and we will be notifying the public shortly who it is,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we cannot announce it until Potraz gives us the go ahead because of regulations.
“Potraz is aware of this agreement, as we already have a contract in place that they agreed on.
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“This is what is delaying us. We want to launch, but they (Potraz) have not made it a policy, so we are just waiting for a greenlight from them.
“What this [the Potraz VNO policy] means is that we can cover the whole of Zimbabwe and that it will be much cheaper for us to launch than if we were obviously creating our own network.”
Chidumba said the deal would allow them to minimise costs to just subscriber acquisition expenses, compared to building the network itself.
Potraz is looking to incorporate VNOs in its framework and is currently reviewing information it gathered before drafting the policy.
The regulator undertook consultative meetings with stakeholders from April 5 to 30.
At a sector stakeholder dialogue that took place at the end of last month, Potraz, Econet, Telecel, Harare Institute of Technology, and Rubiem Technologies met to discuss the proposed policy.
Zimbabwe Information and Communication Technologies (ZICT) chairperson, Jacob Mutisi said VNOs operated on “a wholesale arrangement that allows a mobile network operator to sell excess capacity for resale by more diversified, specialised or other markets through hosting a service on its network”.
ZICT says research shows that mobile and data tariffs gobble 20% of a household’s budget.
Using a recent report from the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe that means on average a person is spending $19,30 on voice and data tariffs monthly.
Using Potraz’s fourth quarter report from last year the 12,87 million active subscribers translates to an estimated $248,56 million a month mobile sector.
