ECONET Wireless (Econet) says it plans to invest US$135 million in its capital expenditure programme over the next 12 months.
The country’s largest telecommunications company says the capital expenditure programme continues to be constrained by lack of availability of foreign currency to pay suppliers.
“The company continues to witness an increase in demand for its services. Usage of voice and data for the quarter under review grew by 30 percent and 31 percent respectively.
Econet Wireless CEO, Douglas Mboweni
“This increase in volumes requires further investment into the platforms and systems that drive network capacity and capabilities,” Econet said in a trading update.
The telecoms group said the capital expenditure will require a supportive pricing regime given the inflation trends and currency depreciation.
Econet has invested over US$3 billion in infrastructure since its inception. The group said it in the process of implementing a virtualised core network that will replace the current core network system.
“The core network is the nerve centre of all the complex network activities that take place in providing the services we provide to our customers.
“This upgrade will enable the company to launch additional products and services and implement faster product changes to enhance the customer experience,” Econet said.
“We also plan to upgrade our radio network in Harare, Bulawayo and Manicaland by the end of the 2023 calendar year.
“For the period under review, the business upgraded 30 percent of our Harare and 70 percent of the Bulawayo base station sites. We have since seen an increase in the speed and volume of data consumed by our customers as a result of these upgrades,” the company said.
During the quarter ended May 31, 2023, Econet’s revenue increased 137 percent compared to the same period last year. The group said inflation over the same period has eroded much of the gains made due to a comparable increase in costs.
“Exchange losses remain a challenge,” Econet said.
In the outlook, Econet said it expects the operating environment to remain challenging in terms of below inflation tariff adjustments, FX headwinds and inflation.
“We, however, expect the demand for our services to remain robust.
“As we continue “building memories together”, we have ramped up our promotional marketing campaign to celebrate Econet for turning 25 years. Hallo 25”, celebrates our 25 years of existence,” Econet said.
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