Zimbabwe’s telecommunications watchdog has renewed the operating licence of mobile network Telecel.

In June, Telecel’s licence expired but was not renewed at the time because the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) said that the operator had not complied with Zimbabwe’s indigenisation policy.

The policy requires that all foreign firms in Zimbabwe give up the majority of their ownership to black Zimbabweans. Telecel Zimbabwe, which says it has over two million subscribers and is Zimbabwe's second largest mobile operator, is majority owned by Telecel International, which is a unit of Russian telco Vimpelcom.

But Telecel Zimbabwe has reportedly told Potraz that it plans to comply with the country’s indigenisation policy.

"Having noted the conclusion of negotiations between the Government of Zimbabwe and Telecel Zimbabwe regarding the renewal of Telecel Zimbabwe national mobile telecommunication licence, the authority hereby advises members of the public that Telecel Zimbabwe's mobile telecommunication licence has been renewed," Potraz said in a statement on Tuesday.

"In reaching this decision, the authority, in particular, took note of the commitment made by Telecel Zimbabwe Limited to comply with the requirement to have a local majority shareholding, in line with Section 36 of the Postal and Telecommunications Act, the Indigenisation Act and the Telecel shareholding agreement," Potraz added.

Prior to this announcement, Telecel has been operating without a licence in the country, but with harmful consequences.

Last month, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile operator Econet Wireless dramatically disconnected from Telecel’s network.

Econet, which has 8 million subscribers in Zimbabwe, said that according to terms of its 20-year Zimbabwean telecoms licence -- which was renewed on 10 July 2013 -- a licence-holder must disconnect from non-licensed operators in the country.

As a result, Econet subscribers could not connect calls to Telecel users.

However, following the renewal of Telecel’s licence yesterday, it is unclear as to whether Econet has subsequently started to reconnect to Zimbabwe’s second largest mobile operator.

Twitter users in Zimbabwe have said they on Wednesday that they have not been able to make calls from an Econet line to a Telecel number.

Gordon Chibanda, @gordonchibanda on Twitter, said on Wednesday: “Now #Telecel has a license and #Econet hasn't connected yet??? Now the tide is over, lets see who was swimming naked.. .”