TELONE requires $30 million to kick-start projects to upgrade its infrastructure and finish the fibre optic cable installations in the country, a company official has said.
Report by Victoria Mtomba.
In an exclusive interview TelOne managing director Chipo Mutasa said the company required funds for recapitalisation and was pursuing various options in that regard.
She said the company would require three years to complete its recapitalisation projects.
“Our infrastructure is aging. We need to upgrade it. I think it’s a combination of external and internal funding that we will look at. We need $30 million to kick-start some of the projects. We have switches that include digital and analogue that are old fashioned and there is no back up equipment from manufacturers, ” Mutasa said.
She said the company was expanding its asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) project, but could not divulge further detail as it was still work in progress.
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Mutasa said in April this year, the parastatals laid fibre optic cables between Harare and Bulawayo, Harare and Kariba and Harare and Forbes border post in Mutare linking it to East African Submarine System in Maputo.
She said the company was working on Bulawayo-Victoria Falls and Bulawayo-Beitbridge fibre projects.
Mutasa said the company plans to complete nine backbone fibre optic rings nationwide to offer diversity routing and for restoration purposes ensuring 100% link availability.
She said the challenges that were being faced in the fibre optic cable work included intense competition in the development of backbones at the expense of quality service, lack of synchronisation of investments with some routes being over-invested and others under-invested.
“The country’s limited resources are used to duplicate investment on assets which can be shared therefore there is need for clarity on policy for infrastructure sharing,” she said.