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Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile network service provider, Econet Wireless, has bemoaned the relentless power cuts that the country experienced last year as one of the major factors that affected the company’s operations.
The power cuts took a toll on the mobile service company which has to service generators and purchase large quantities of fuel to keep the business running.
In its latest Audited Abridged Consolidated Financial Results report, the telecommunications company revealed that they incurred fuel costs while using generators to stay afloat amid the crisis.
“Our network, during the peak of load shedding required over 3 million litres of diesel to operate optimally. During the year under review, our service quality and network availability were significantly impacted by power,” Econet said.
The telco company added that its cost-inefficient way to power the network as 1 kW of diesel power is 3-times more expensive than 1 kW of solar power.
Operational costs shoot during the crisis while the company had turned to the use of generators as a source of power.
“Costs increased as we had to constantly service the generators and also run an extensive fleet of fuel refilling tankers,” reads the report.
The power crisis also affected mobile money services across the country as the disruptions are common to all networks.
At that particular time subscribers experience network challenges with most transactions failing.
[14:58, 02/11/2020] editor Techonomag: Now almost an hour after lunch and no one is in the news room except Crucial. Lunch starts at 1300 – 1400HRS, those with communicated assignment are only excepted
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