Does NetOne have 5G?

Does NetOne have 5G? Zimbabwe’s second largest network provider has revealed its plans to launch 5G in the near future, possibly in the second half of 2022. 5G is still a very new technology and most countries are still to launch the technology. 

Operators in South Africa and Kenya launched 5G in 2021. Zimbabwe recently launched 5G through Econet Wireless in February 2022. Econet is working in partnership with Ericsson to roll out 5G throughout Zimbabwe. However, NetOne has the country’s second largest 4G coverage.

What is 5G?

In layman’s terms, 5G is the latest edition of mobile broadband technology. 5G is many times faster than 4G. Econet’s 5G recorded speeds of up to 3000 Mbps. 5G also has extremely low latency compared. 

This means that you can execute commands remotely on a machine and the response is almost real-time. Think of dangerous missions that may possibly cause casualties if done by humans. 5G will enable us to do such dangerous missions without risking human life at the same time using human precision. 

Today data is gathered from our online activities via our smart devices or computers. In a 5G world data will be gathered from vehicles, medical equipment, industrial machines and many other tools that will be connected in a network. Smart cities are going to thrive from the use of 5G and connected devices/tools. It is the bedrock for the Internet of Things. 

Who owns NetOne Zimbabwe?

NetOne Zimbabwe is fully owned by the Zimbabwean government and it was established in 1996 after the Post and telecommunications Corporation (PTC) was split into three companies. It became TelOne, Zimpost and NetOne. 

Through this NetOne became Zimbabwe’s first ever mobile network service provider followed by Econet Wireless and lastly Telecel. Even though it came first, it is the country’s second largest network provider. 

Econet holds the greatest share of the Zimbabwean market while Telecel is third largest among the three. NetOne is led by a board of directors that are appointed by the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ). 

The government of Zimbabwe is currently selling NetOne and TelOne. The two companies have been running at a loss for some years and they have outstanding debt owed to external banks. No company has committed to buying the company and that is largely due to how the balance sheet is looking right now.    

How fast is the NetOne network?

Not only is NetOne the second largest network service provider, but they also have the second-fastest mobile internet. In a speed test, Econet’s 4G was the fastest with a download speed of 7.6Mbps. NetOne recorded a download speed of 6.5Mbps. 

Telecel had the least fastest speed running at 1.91Mbps download speed. In terms of pricing, Econet is the most expensive while Telecel is the least expensive. Data prices are generally high in Zimbabwe because the country has a large surface area which means more equipment is needed for wide coverage and those costs are passed down to the end-user.