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Econet connects 100 000 to internet
Bulawayo Online
March 05, 2011

http://bulawayoonline.com/latest-news/econet-connects-100-000-to-internet.html

Zimbabwe's largest telecommunications company, Econet, has connected more than 100 000 customers to its broadband (Internet) facility just a week after its launch. "Within just one week, Econet Broadband has expanded to more than 100 000 connected customers and the company is bracing itself for continued rapid growth well into the coming year."

Ecolife is also seeing subscriber numbers double every week.

"The number of Zimbabweans on ecolife has now gone past 300 000 within a month of launch," said the firm's chief executive Mr Douglas Mboweni in a statement.

The company last month widened its horizons and launched the high-speed broadband Internet service after launching a life insurance product known as Ecolife jointly run by the firm and one of the country's insurance giants First Mutual Life (FML) both of which received unprecedented response from the company's clientele.

Econet said the two services had been runaway successes surpassing anything the company had experienced before.

Econet Wireless is a shareholder in Afre Corporation, which made it easy for the company to design the Ecolife product as Afre Corporation is the parent company of FML.

Mboweni said his company would soon introduce more and more insurance products including special services for diaspora Zimbabweans.

On broadband, he said demand and usage were strong, adding that much of the demand was being driven by users of Econet broadband's "On the Go" service, which gives users Internet access on their mobile phones.

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has come under criticism from its subscribers saying the broadband service was elitist considering its high cost on the average Zimbabwean claims the company's spokesperson Ranga Mberi dismissed saying the current system is flexible.

Previously Econet had a broadband facility which had a fixed charge of US$25 per month, a facility subscribers say was affordable.

"This billing system was inflexible for our customers, as they would be billed the same, whether they were low or high users.

"However, with Econet Broadband, our customers are now billed only according to what they use, nothing more, and nothing less."

Subscribers now buy data bundles of various sizes from a single megabyte up to 1000 megabytes to allow them to use the web. One megabyte costs US$0.20.

Econet Wireless has a current subscriber base of 4.5 million subscribers; this means if the company manages to connect all its customers to the internet more than a third of the country's total population will have access to the World Wide Web (WWW).

Africa has lagged behind in the communication field especially in the New Communication Technologies (ICT) and this, if done across the continent will assist African populations in participating in the development of the continent.

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