Do You Know Who owns Telco Zimbabwe?

Who owns Telco Zimbabwe? Telco is a subsidiary of Telecontract Holdings. The company started off as a subcontractor of Zimbabwe’s only telecommunications company at the time. That was the Post and Telecommunications Corporation otherwise known as PTC. 

The company was responsible for the design, installation and commissioning of telephone lines. This covered both aerial and underground lines. The company is currently led by Shadreck Nkala as its CEO. 

Over the years the company evolved and added other services to its main operations. Telco now provides broadband services to retail customers for both businesses and individuals. The company’s affiliation with TelOne has helped them to take advantage of the massive coverage that they enjoy. They offer packages for both ADSL and fibre optic WiFi. TelOne has one of the largest coverage in terms of broadband services. 

When was Telco Established? 

Telco was established in 1991. It is one of the first three companies to ever be awarded the draft Internet Access provider licence by the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ). 

Telco provides broadband at wholesale to other Internet Service Providers in the country. Over and above being an Internet access provider, the company is also an Internet Service Provider.

Telco was also the first company to hire and train technicians and engineers locally. Before Telco there was no company in the internet access industry that was training their own technicians and engineers. Again, Telco was the first Zimbabwean Internet Service Provider to offer voice over internet services commercially. 

How good is the internet in Zimbabwe? 

Zimbabwe’s internet is fairly good in comparison to most countries in the Sub Saharan region. When it comes to world standards there is still big room for improvement. The vast majority of the Zimbabwean population gets access to the internet via mobile phones. 

For that reason a huge portion of those people use mobile network providers to access the internet. Econet has the fastest 4G network followed by NetOne and lastly Telecel. Most recently Econet introduced 5G in Avondale, Harare. The company is working with Ericsson to roll out the 5G network across the entire nation.

While companies like Telco, TelOne, Liquid and Dandemutande have a large coverage in terms of fixed broadband, the internet penetration in Zimbabwe is still very low. Fixed broadband like fibre optic is more common in upmarket neighbourhoods. 

TelOne has a wide reach thanks to the landline infrastructure that was set up decades ago. Liquid Telcom has the largest fibre network in Africa and it is at the forefront in terms of increasing coverage in Zimbabwe. 

Why is the internet expensive in Zimbabwe? 

Zimbabwe has a large surface area and a relatively small population. That means that in some areas people are thinly distributed. Setting up infrastructure in small population areas becomes very expensive. 

These costs are transferred to the end-user via tariffs. This is evident in most countries that have a small population and large areas. Neighbouring South Africa has relatively cheaper internet because of the dense population, especially in urban areas.