Zimbabwe's Econet Wireless has launched a Smart Data campaign to promote customer access to high-speed LTE internet connectivity and use of its smart data network in fresh bid to challenge rival operators.

Melanie Musengezi, Econet's GM for marketing, reckons that the telco is now at "a watershed moment" in its quest for continued market dominance.

According to Musengezi, data has become so important for Econet Wireless that the company is challenging subscribers to test the speed of its internet services and compare it with speeds experienced on the networks of its competitors.

Douglas Mboweni, Econet Wireless CEO, said "the smart data campaign that we launch today is a culmination of our recent conclusion of the network modernisation project which resulted in us deploying over 400 new LTE sites and upgrading over 250 others" across the country.

However, Econet has received numerous complaints over reliability and quality of its internet services.

In response to queries from clients at a recent expo, a company client services official said, "When (you) make a data call many elements are involved. We cannot guarantee anything that happens inside the internet and we cannot guarantee what happens at the other end of the call,"

"As far as the link on our network is concerned we always put enough bandwidth for the application you will be using," he added.