Telecel Zimbabwe claims higher subs base than regulator’s numbers

Zimbabwe mobile operator Telecel has denied a report by the telecom regulator that the company lost 375,000 customers in the first three months of this year.

A routine statistics update from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) gave the subscriber figures for the three mobile networks as: Econet – 6.4 million, NetOne – 1.6 million, and Telecel – 1.5 million.

However, Telecel said that its active customer base was 1.8 million at the end of March, which would put it at the same level as the figure for the end of 2011.

In a statement though, Telecel’s managing director John Swaim said that the company had gained customers, when in fact, based on their own figures, the customer base seems to have been flat over the three month period.

According to POTRAZ, Econet added 714,000 subscribers during the course of the first quarter while NetOne added 144,000 users.