eBusiness Weekly
Michael Magoronga
Over 10 NetOne base stations are set to be constructed in Gokwe South as a way of curbing network connectivity challenges in the area.
Recently, a base station was commissioned at Marapira Growth point and more are earmarked for construction.
The Gokwe base stations project is part of the a countrywide development project targeting about 100 rural base stations under the China-Exim loan facility, which is set to extend Net One’s coverage coverage by more than 12 percent in Zimbabwe’s rural areas.
In an interview soon after the commissioning of the base station, NetOne executive marketing director, Dr Eldrette Shereni said the network provider had embarked on nationwide network improving programme targeting mostly remote areas.
“Net One has been coming up with initiatives to address network coverage problems in Zimbabwe’s rural and remote areas with Gokwe included. We have presence in more than ten areas in Gokwe and recently we have focused on Marapira in Gokwe South and we will be extending our presence to Kana, Manoti, Sengwa Bridge, Mbungu and other areas utilising Marapira as main base station site to link other base stations,” she said.
Dr Shereni said Marapira’s base station, is expected to serve over 10 000 people around places like Binga, Marapira, Sengwa and Manoti.
“Marapira was chosen to cover the large coverage gap between our existing functional base stations that is Gawa and Charama in Gokwe, and Binga and Lupane Districts. We are currently developing a base stations site at Mzola in Lupane district, 122 km from Marapira, this site will also be used to extend coverage to Dandanda, Kenyandavu towards Gokwe District and to (Lusulu) in Lupane towards Nkayi district,” she explained.
Net One intends to extent its coverage to rural areas to enable development in rural communities through mobile money services and access to broadband services.
