The committee came to reality with the poor road network in Maramba Pfungwe after they failed to get to the Chiunye base station and had to conduct its business at Chitsungo Business Centre more than 15km from the base station where the locals led by Hon Tichaona Karumazondo complained over the poor network connectivity in the area.
"We are facing a lot of challenges especially from Telecel whose network has been down for 6months now which has affected our operations," said Hon Karumazondo.
Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Hon Charlton Hwende blasted Telecel for failing to manage its allocated shared infrastructure and said they will summon its management and that of other operators to appear before the committee.
"It is very unfair that the government provides you with infrastructure and you are failing to maintain it. Your management has to appear before this committee to explain your challenges," said Hon Hwende.
POTRAZ Head of Consumer Services Mr. George Manyaya said operators allocated base stations to manage should honour their obligations.
Under the current phase, a total of fifteen sites have been constructed in the eight rural provinces of Zimbabwe and 3 operators namely Telecel, Netone, and Econet share the same passive infrastructure with each operator having been allocated sites to manage.
