JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Mobile network operator Econet Wireless Zimbabwe announced it has commissioned a new switching center with capacity to carry 100,000 additional subscribers.
Douglas Mboweni, Econet chief executive, said the upgrade would not alleviate the network congestion currently experienced by most Econet subscribers in Zimbabwe, and the capacity would not result in the connection of additional subscribers onto the Econet GSM network. Subscribers have recently complained of deteriorating or in some cases lack of service due to network congestion, which Mboweni attributed to delays in upgrading the network due to the economy-wide shortage of foreign currency and credit lines as most of the required equipment has to be imported from countries like South Africa and Sweden.
Mboweni said the new switch was the beginning of efforts to expand Econet’s capacity, which would lead to new base stations being installed across the country.
