Zimbabwe still needs 350 base stations for connectivity

By Staff reporter | 04 Oct 2019 at 21:17hrs
Kazembe
ICT Minister Kazembe Kazembe says the country requires 350 additional base stations to attain 100% mobile network coverage.

Currently, Zimbabwe has a 8,884 base stations countrywide with 6246 of these deployed in urban Zimbabwe and the other 2638 in rural areas. Coverage is currently at 96%.

"Currently, there are 8,884 base stations countrywide; 6246 base stations are deployed in urban Zimbabwe and the other 2638 in our rural areas, forming network coverage of 96%," Kazembe said

"This shows that we have areas that are yet to get coverage. To attain 100% mobile network coverage, the country requires 350 additional base stations," he added.

Other initiatives government, through telecoms regulator Potraz, has embarked on include the flighted tender by Potraz inviting bidders/investors to participate in the deployment of base stations throughout the country and the erection of Community Information Centres (CICs) and Containerised Village Information Centre (CVICs) in disadvantaged and underserved communities.

Minister Kazembe said to date there are 100 CICs and 23 CVICs.

"To date, one hundred (100) Community Information Centres and twenty-three (23) Community Village Information Centres are already operational around the country providing facilities for Internet surfing, recreational (i.e. gamming), photocopying, photo printing, scanning and training among others. This access to information has enabled people in these communities to share experiences and help decision-makers to link macro-economic policy-making to grassroots initiatives," he added.

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