Zimbabwe Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Potraz) has granted Dolphin Telecoms a mobile virtual network operating license. This makes Dolphin the four mobile operator service in the county after Econet, Telecel and NetOne.

Mobile virtual network operators do not need to erect base stations and rely on the excess capacity from the existing network operators.

Dolphin Telecoms Managing Director Nyasha Charumbira confirmed the development and said it has partnered with one of three local mobile network operators to launch services. “We have secured an agreement with one mobile network operator and our model aims to create a new layer of efficiency in virtualisation space.”

He added that his company will rely on existing infrastructure and infrastructure sharing.

Dolphin’s service will cover a broad market via its partner’s extensive backbone.

“The commercial launch is scheduled for later this year,” said Charumbira.

Charumbira said the company has invested US$15-million into its offering. “We’ve tightened the software layer to ensure that the issues that people are frustrated with, regarding failure to top up, top-ups not being recognised, having to switch network settings for a date to activate, and other common problems clogging customer service lines are resolved.”

The company is also targeting the lucrative financial services market.

Charumbira added, “We’re going to move into the financial service with a creative peer-peer financial system that will revolve many challenges that limit the usefulness of existing products.”

ICT industry analyst Brighton Musonza said the advent of the “new” player was not going to change anything in Zimbabwe’s telecommunications ecosystem.

Musonza said, “Dolphin won’t be operating a mobile phone network. They operate IP transit, interconnections service, On-Demand Backhaul service, and hybrid solutions. And international private leased circuits. They work on say government or companies’ internal communications. (It’s) business-to-business, not business-to-consumer.”