The bitter dispute over alleged outstanding interconnection fees owed to Econet by NetOne has turned more acrimonious, after Econet was forced to reverse its move to terminate interconnection services with its rival last night.
Yesterday, state-owned NetOne filed an urgent high court application seeking to interdict Econet from disconnecting cross network calls to and from its network.
Tawanda Nyambirai, the chairperson of Econet – and also founder of TN Bank - is said to have agreed to have his company restore interconnection services with NetOne last night.
NetOne officials said in a statement this morning as well that it would also lodge a formal complaint with the police against Econet.
“Econet and its management have committed a criminal offence by unlawfully and wilfully impeding the transmission of communications services between customers of both networks,” said NetOne.
It said Econet has breached section 91 of the country’s Postal and Telecommunications Act, which says “any telecommunications licensee who wilfully impedes or delays the transmission of the communication shall be guilty” and liable to a fine or imprisonment.
NetOne is disputing the existence of an interconnection agreement with Econet, and says it does not owe the telco any money in unpaid call termination fees.
Econet has not been immediately available for comment on the latest developments this morning.
However, a confidential source at the company told ITWeb Africa that the company was preparing a response to counter NetOne’s position.
NetOne said Econet’s decision to terminate interconnection with its network users was “malicious” as both companies are supposed to “technically remain interconnected pending the determination” of the appeal lodged with the communications minister and “the approval of the new agreements by Potraz.
“The termination of interconnection will inconvenience subscribers and lead to greater loss of revenue for the two companies. Potraz should just make sure that a solution is found to this impasse which has been in the making for a long time,” Prosper Murefu, a local ICT consultant, said yesterday.
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