Investment and innovation are the key to success in telecoms the world over, according to Econet Wireless CEO, Douglas Mboweni.
Speaking as the company released its half year results, Mboweni reminded analysts that the company had invested $1 billion since 2008. He said no other business had shown "so much confidence in the future of Zimbabwe when measured by actual money invested. We are a local company, owned by Zimbabweans, and we have gone all over the world to find money to invest in our country”.
Mboweni said in telecommunications you have to be constantly investing because customers are always buying new types of phones that require greater capability from the network. “All these new devices that people are buying, such as tablets and smartphones, require ever increasing capability from the network. This means we have to buy new network equipment all the time.
“If you take the new iPhone that just came out, it will not work properly if we do not have 4G. We have to invest in 4G to ensure our top customers stay on the network just as we did with 3G. All this requires hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Mboweni.
He said innovation was also critical for a successful business, but he also noted that it was not simply an idea of adopting new ideas, but also adapting those ideas in such a way that you are successful.
He gave the example of Mobile money, where other operators in Africa, tried and abandoned because it was too difficult to implement. “We were the last to launch mobile money, with our Ecocash but we now have one of the most successful services of its kind on the whole continent, even South Africa has not been as successful, as us in mobile money services."
Speaking as the company released its half year results, Mboweni reminded analysts that the company had invested $1 billion since 2008. He said no other business had shown "so much confidence in the future of Zimbabwe when measured by actual money invested. We are a local company, owned by Zimbabweans, and we have gone all over the world to find money to invest in our country”.
Mboweni said in telecommunications you have to be constantly investing because customers are always buying new types of phones that require greater capability from the network. “All these new devices that people are buying, such as tablets and smartphones, require ever increasing capability from the network. This means we have to buy new network equipment all the time.
“If you take the new iPhone that just came out, it will not work properly if we do not have 4G. We have to invest in 4G to ensure our top customers stay on the network just as we did with 3G. All this requires hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Mboweni.
He said innovation was also critical for a successful business, but he also noted that it was not simply an idea of adopting new ideas, but also adapting those ideas in such a way that you are successful.
He gave the example of Mobile money, where other operators in Africa, tried and abandoned because it was too difficult to implement. “We were the last to launch mobile money, with our Ecocash but we now have one of the most successful services of its kind on the whole continent, even South Africa has not been as successful, as us in mobile money services."
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