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TelOne set to recover $200m from debtors

Business
TelOne will soon embark on an alternative programme to recover $200 million owed to it by public entities.

TelOne will soon embark on an alternative programme to recover $200 million owed to it by public entities.

BY FIDELITY MHLANGA/TINOTENDA MUNYUKWI

The company’s managing director Chipo Mtasa said the telecoms company would take a cue from power utility Zesa Holdings by recovering its money through pre-paid billing, where after every payment made by a debtor the company would deduct a certain percentage of the money.

“We are still owed money of about $200 million. We are trying to move to prepaid such that if a person pays $30 then $20 goes for the current bill and the rest goes towards the debt. We would want to do what Zesa does, I think it’s a good model,” she said on the sidelines of a pre-paid voice bundles and Wifi Home and Away services launch.

She added that the telecoms company completed the Bulawayo-Beitbridge backbone fibre project, which is a more reliable and cheaper route linking Zimbabwe to the rest of the world through South Africa.

“We are on course to recapture the market share that we think belongs to us. The last two weeks we commissioned the link between Bulawayo and Beitbridge, a desired link between TelOne and SA were the major traffic comes in, and it will have a lot of implications to the cost and affordability element we are talking about,” she said.

The project is part of the implementation of the National Broadband project which has to date drawn down $54 million of the $98 million facility, which has given the business impetus for growth.

Programme implementation is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

Mtasa said a key highlight from the network modernisation project is the migration to pre-paid for voice service and it is anticipated to improve business cash collections.

Through the prepaid voice bundles, voice calls will be cut down by more than 80%.

The Wifi home and away service is a product which will allow all TelOne broadband customers to access their broadband account at any of the TelOne hotspots national wide.

“Customer experience improvement remains a key priority in the company’s turnaround strategy to augment the network boost. With products like prepaid voice bundles and Wifi home and away, convenience with cost effectiveness have become a reality for our clients.”