Rush For Econet Wireless Lines In Zimbabwe

2005-06-28 09:10:00 | Viewed 2707 times

There was pandemonium at the Econet Wireless Customer Service offices at the corner of First Street and George Silundika Avenue in Harare yesterday as hundreds of people jostled to buy mobile phone lines.

Police and soldiers had to be summoned to control the queue as people pushed and shoved each other. The queue stretched from First Street to Sam Nujoma Street and some said they had joined it as early as 5am.

Although Econet Wireless Communications Manager, Mr Dakarayi Matanga could not say how many lines had been released for sale, it is understood that about 100 lines were up for sale yesterday.

"I can not yet say how many lines we have sold so far but we will be progressively releasing lines to meet the demand. We expect the subscriber base to double to over 500 000 by the end of the year," Mr Dakarayi said.

He said by December last year, the subscriber base had reached 244 435.

"The re-launch of libertie, which is a hybrid product between contract and pre-paid has been made possible by the $200 billion expansion programme that started early this year," Mr Dakarayi said.

He said despite yesterday's release of lines demand was still high and the company was working flat out to make lines available to all those in need and also increase network capacity.

"This includes development of the network's short service message system, voice mail and switching capacity to enable the network to process more calls."

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