TelOne recovers $100m, eyes 4% revenue growth

Markets
STATE-OWNED fixed line operator TelOne sees 4% growth in revenue in 2015 after it recovered $100 million from debtors that would improve its working capital position, managing director Chipo Mtasa has said.

STATE-OWNED fixed line operator TelOne sees 4% growth in revenue in 2015 after it recovered $100 million from debtors that would improve its working capital position, managing director Chipo Mtasa has said.

Last year, TelOne engaged debt collectors to recover $190 million owed by its customers, including $40 million owed by the government in unpaid telephone bills.

“Our projects for the year will be focusing on expanding broadband connectivity in the country as well as improvement of our client services systems,” Mtasa said.

“TelOne envisages a 4% increase in revenue thisyear. The projects will be funded from various sources which include internal TelOne funding and loans secured from various sources with the support from the Shareholder, the government of Zimbabwe.”

Mtasa said the company was bullish about 2015 and would focus on network expansion and revenue growth. However, its capital expenditure for the year is still under discussion and subject to approval by the government.  She said TelOne would expand fibre access to homes through the gigabit passive ptical network.

The company intends to set up a data centre which will see TelOne offer customers the opportunity to rent virtual servers, provide software development and testing platforms as well as web and e-mail hosting services, among other benefits.

In June 2014, Mtasa said  TelOne expected broadband and data services to contribute a quarter of its total revenue from 14% last year.

— The Source