By ZOL Zimbabwe which rebranded last Thursday to Liquid Home, now has 60 new LTE basestations already running as they continuously penetrate the end user market with fast mobile connectivity.
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In a seperate deal which actually makes them competition to Econet, NetOne, Telecel and TelOne in GSM connectivity, Liquid intelligent has beeen rolling out their LTE network running on fifth Generation basestations, which are then backhauled to their fast last mile fiber connectivity.
Liquid Intelligent Technologies Southern Africa Regional CEO Wellington Makamure, who said their LTE network is not part of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has been running already as they are now expanding it.
Addressing a question from TechnoMag, Mr Makamure said “With 5th generation comes a lot and they already have their application awaiting approval.”
Liquid’s 5G plans are in intransigent with those of its next door neighbor South Africa.Last Thursday, ZOL unveiled its new brand identity- Liquid Home Zimbabwe.The rebrand follows the evolution of Liquid Telecom becoming Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a business of Cassava Technologies.
ZOL was the only arm of Liquid that hadn’t yet come under the new brand umbrella.
Makamure told TechnoMag that Liquid Intelligent Technologies will use its cellular network capacity to build a 5G network aimed at industries such as manufacturing and mining.
Just next door South Africa, in March, Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa bid R111 million to acquire 4 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum in the 3,500 MHz band.
Spectrum is the raw network capacity cellular operators use for mobile devices to communicate with their towers.
After years of delays, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) held an auction for some of this precious wireless network capacity.
Liquid’s spectrum purchase during the auction brings its holdings in the 3,500 MHz band to a round 60 MHz.
Although this is a substantial amount of spectrum in a single band, the International Telecommunications Union has recommended that operators have 100 MHz of contiguous spectrum in 3,500 MHz for 5G.
The rest of the unassigned frequencies in this band were bought by Telkom (22 MHz), Cell C (10 MHz), MTN (40 MHz), and Vodacom (10 MHz).
Spectrum assignments of South Africa’s major mobile networks before Icasa’s auction should be a good precursor for Zimbabwe’s on Liquid which according to Makamure already have their papers before Postal Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) and the Ministry of ICT.
Liquid SA CEO Deon Geyser told the media that they deliberately bid for a small portion of the spectrum.
Geyser said Liquid has a different business model from players such as Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom.
“While wireless is important, we have a fibre and data centre strategy,” Geyser said.
He said they see the substantial investment other operators made into spectrum as an opportunity.
Icasa raised just under R14.5 billion for National Treasury with the auction.
Vodacom bid almost R5.4 billion for 110 MHz of spectrum, MTN bid nearly R5.2 billion for 100MHz, and Telkom bid R2.1 billion for 44 MHz.
Liquid sees this as an opportunity for growth as they provide fibre to towers throughout South Africa, Geyser said.
For their own 5G network, Geyser said they see an opportunity in manufacturing plants, ports, and mining — particularly in automation.
Geyser said Liquid has no plans to re-enter the consumer market directly as it would require considerable investments in a product distribution platform.
Similarly Liquid Intelligent Technologies Southern Africa CEO Makamure told TechnoMag that they are not part of Econet when quizzed on why they are not following in their kith and keens footsteps of acquiring 5G nevertheless emphasizing they are in “their own direction no wonder they are the number one provider of all internet solutions in Zimbabwe.”
Meanwhile back to the business of the day, Makamure made it clear that as part of ZOL’s rebrand, Liquid Home Zimbabwe will ensure the seamless transfer of all customer accounts from ZOL to Liquid Home. Customers will enjoy the same benefits they did under the previous brand name, and on the same terms and conditions as their existing contracts, ensuring no disruptions to the services provided.
Thursday’s rebrand came at a time when the Demand for home connectivity has increased uncontrollably to cater for employees working remotely and children being home schooled.
Makamure added that, “The rebrand is to ensure the consolidation of Liquid’s consumer offering so we are identified as a single brand, under one name. The new brand identity will ensure streamlined service delivery and assure our customers of our continues commitment to offer uninterrupted internet services straight to their homes.”
Liquid Home Zimbabwe will certainly put 5th generation technology to good use if already they are the leading provider in the country without it and Makamure spoke well in this regard.
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