(Reuters) - Zimbabwe’s largest mobile operator Econet
Wireless said it will take “drastic measures” if the impacts of severe rolling
blackouts cannot be resolved, adding that the power cuts had left its operation
unsustainable.
The southern African country, already dealing with numerous
crises from fuel and foreign currency shortages to soaring inflation, is
generating less than half of its peak winter electricity demand, crippling
mines and factories and compounding the country’s worst economic crisis in a
decade.
Its largest hydropower plant, Kariba, is operating at low
capacity due to a drought.
Econet, which has 11 million subscribers, controls 99% of
the mobile money transfer market and is relying on diesel generators, said it
was becoming “untenable and uneconomical” to guarantee a reasonable level of
service in the current conditions.
“If the authorities that oversee the industry do not offer
quick viable solutions as required in the current crisis, the business will
have no choice but to take drastic measures to ensure sustainable service,”
Econet said in a statement.
The company was not immediately available to elaborate, but
the technology magazine TechZim last week speculated that mobile phone networks
were considering switching off subscribers during power cuts, to avoid rising
costs that were not matched by the tariffs the industry currently charges.
The company already experienced a major network failure on
Saturday, which it said was caused by power cuts, prompting serious disruption
in a country where mobile money transfers currently account for more than 95%
of transactions due to a cash crunch.
It said it “could not sustain” an operation that requires
running generators, which need fortnightly servicing, for 14-18 hours every day
in the current environment.
Econet voice tariffs, it continued, have remained static
while Zimbabwe’s local currency has lost nearly 900% of its value against the
U.S. dollar and fuel prices have skyrocketed by more than 500% since the
beginning of the year.
It would require more than six times the level of diesel it
is currently using to provide uninterrupted service, the statement said, adding
that current shortages meant that some of its base stations will be unable to
operate at times resulting in poorer service availability, call set up, call
success rates dropped call rates and speech quality.
Zimbabwe’s myriad problems have undermined hopes that the
country’s economy could rebound under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who
replaced long-time ruler Robert Mugabe after a November 2017 coup and retained
power in a disputed election last July.
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