NEWS

MASVINGO badly needs advanced Information Communication Technology system in order for the province to develop, an official said. In an interview on the sidelines of Power- Tel's official launch at a

 

local hotel in Masvingo on Friday night, the company's chief operations manager, Mr Adonia Mushosho, said the city was the oldest in the country and thus deserving development in every aspect.

 

He said the city is supposed to join the bandwagon in the information highway through being connected to high-speed Internet systems and the company was geared towards adding value to the province's developmental efforts by launching Internet services in the whole province.

 

Present at the colourful occasion were Great Zimbabwe University Vice Chancellor Professor Rungano Zvobgo, Masvingo Mayor Alderman Femius Chakabuda, representatives from Zesa, heads of Government departments and local businessmen.

 

"ICT by each nature is an economic enabler that after the installation of PowerTel optic fibre that provides Internet services with a large bandwidth.

 

"We are adding impetus to Masvingo's development initiatives and we will make sure that the city is lifted to the level of other major cities in the country through the best information highway," said Mr Mushosho.

 

He said PowerTel had a competitive advantage over other networks because its network was secure from any vandalism.

 

"We are privileged because we follow Zesa lines where chances of vandalism are very slim because thieves can be electrocuted if they try to reach for the cable.

 

"Most of our cables are overhead and that is environment friendly as opposed to trenching only. The installation is very fast and is done along 330 kilovolts cables.

 

"The cable doubles as an earth wire and inside it transmits data," he said.

 

Mr Mushosho said they were intending to cover the whole province but they would give preference to major business centres.

 

"We have a five-year strategic plan for Masvingo and we want to cover the whole province starting with the major centres like growth points.

 

"Our main aim is for the province to experience an improvement in business and start to contribute immensely to the country's Gross Domestic Product.

 

"Universities in the city would also take less time in getting the information they want when they are doing their research."

 

Speaking earlier at the same occasion, the company's sales and marketing manager, Mr Willard Nyagwande, said PowerTel had brought total solutions to Internet challenges to Masvingo and more products were on the way.