Does TelOne have a sim? TelOne is Zimbabwe’s largest fixed-line telecommunications operator. Since its inception, TelOne has focused on fixed-line telecommunication services. In recent years TelOne introduced TelOne blaze, a mobile broadband service. Since this service uses LTE, an LTE sim card is required to get access to the internet.
What is LTE?
LTE is a standard of mobile broadband which is also known as 4G (Fourth generation). 4G offers good speed compared to its predecessors 3G and 2G. The latest standard is 5G and it is still very new. Less than 50% of the world’s countries have launched 5G.
In Africa, there are a few countries that have 5G. So far Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe have launched the technology successfully. A number of countries are still testing and will launch soon.
Nigeria and Ethiopia are more than 90% ready to roll out their 5G. Zimbabwe’s Econet is the only operator offering 5G. Econet partnered with Ericsson to roll out 5G throughout Zimbabwe. NetOne will be launching in the near future.
Does TelOne have fibre?
TelOne Zimbabwe is one of the largest Internet Service Providers in Zimbabwe. The company provides broadband services for both retail and wholesale customers. For a number of years, TelOne used its fixed-line infrastructure to provide internet via ADSL.
Most of their customers came from their existing database of landline telephones. TelOne also offers fibre optic internet in most parts of Zimbabwe. In the present day, they continue to install fibre optic cabling to widen their coverage.
TelOne offers the same packages for both ADSL and fibre. Depending on the coverage one has in their area they can pick what better suits them. TelOne faces fierce competition from companies in the private sector such as Dandemutande and Liquid Telecom.
Liquid has the largest fibre network in Zimbabwe and in Africa. Liquid is a subsidiary of Econet wireless and they operate in 9 countries including Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Botswana Lesotho and Swaziland. Liquid also acquired one of Zimbabwe’s biggest ISPs, ZOL and rebranded it to Liquid Home.
Who owns TelOne?
TelOne is owned by the Zimbabwean government. There is no other shareholder in the company. The Post and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, also known as POTRAZ, regulates the activities of TelOne.
The company is led by a board of directors that was appointed by POTRAZ. That was after the Post and Telecommunication Corporation (PTC) was disbanded and re-established as three companies.
These companies became TelOne, NetOne and Zimpost. TelOne focuses on fixed-line telecommunications while NetOne deals with mobile network provision. Zimpost deals with postal services only.
In recent years the government of Zimbabwe announced that it is selling both TelOne and NetOne. This decision was made since the companies have not been profitable for a number of years and they are behind in paying off their debt. It has not been easy to find a buyer even though the two are being sold as a bundle.