Outrage as NetOne disconnects customers

By Newsday | Aug. 5, 2013

Hundreds of NetOne subscribers in Bulawayo are stranded after the mobile operator inexplicably blocked their sim cards without notice.

Gamma Mudarikiri Own Correspondent

Angry NetOne subscribers on Saturday thronged the mobile operator’s offices in the city centre demanding an explanation as to why their lines were blocked.

Disgruntled subscribers told Southern Eye Business the mobile operator only told them to reregister their lines despite the fact that they had done so upon the purchase of the lines.

“My line has been blocked for the past four days and NetOne has not given me the explanation as to why it is blocked,” one of the disgruntled subscribers said.

Some of the subscribers who spoke to this paper, said they were told to reregister and thereafter their lines were reconnected.

However, NetOne has not given a full explanation as to why it had blocked the lines. The mobile operator could not be reached for comment by the time of going to print as this paper was denied entry into the company offices in Bulawayo. NetOne office phones went unanswered.

Subscribers of different mobile phone operators have for long been taken for a ride by their service providers.

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Last week Econet Wireless Zimbabwe announced that it had cut its connection with Telecel leaving millions of subscribers of the networks stranded. Econet Wireless claimed that it did not have any legal or moral obligation to interconnect with an unlicensed operator.

Telecel is still negotiating with the government for the renewal of its operating licence, which expired recently.

However, authorities say Telecel, a unit of Orascom, should comply with the country’s indigenisation and empowerment laws before being licensed. The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe has since launched investigations into the matter.

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