The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has taken steps to achieve the infrastructure sharing objective. POTRAZ has now built 367 towers through the Universal Service Fund. The towers have a 15km radius.
Speaking at the commissioning of one such site at Phumula village in Tsholotso, the Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, Kazembe Kazembe said
It is our fervent hope that through such initiatives our operators learn and continue to appreciate the tenants and benefits of infrastructure sharing. Apart from providing wider consumer choice and an enhanced service competition which in turn promotes creativity and innovation, infrastructure sharing significantly brings down both capital expenditure and operating expenditure.
Speaking at the same event, POTRAZ Director General Gift Machengete said
As we now move towards addressing connectivity for the last 15% of our population, it is important to bear in mind the importance of affordability to consumers in general and bottom of the pyramid consumers in particular. Connectivity without affordability is futile and meaningless to the intended beneficiaries. We, therefore, believe that access to affordable quality information communication technologies is a basic right to every citizen in as much as access to water is a basic right.