In Zimbabwe, only 10% of mobile phone calls from subscribers on the country’s Telecel network to Econet Wireless numbers are successfully connecting.

This is according to a statement released on Wednesday by Telecel, which says that on average it is taking its subscribers up to “20 attempts” before they can get through to an Econet number.

Reverse calls from Econet to Telecel are connecting without any issues, says Telecel.

Meanwhile, the Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) and Econet have been alerted about the interconnection issue by Telecel.

But reasons for the alleged problem have not been explained by Telecel, Potraz or Econet.

Telecel, though, says this problem has been ongoing since July 14.

“Our call completion statistics indicate that we normally have a completion rate of above 90% for all Telecel to Econet traffic. When the problem started, this reduced to 37%,” Telecel says in a statement released on Wednesday.

“As of Monday this week (July 22), this came down to 19%. As of Wednesday (July 24), this had come down even further to only 10%,” Telecel adds.

In the statement, Telecel says that “this lack of connectivity has nothing to do with the Telecel network capacity”.

The telco goes on to say that its interconnect links have been tested and are “congestion-free”.

“Calls to other local destinations, including Net-One, Tel-One and Africom, as well as to international operators, and calls in the reverse direction are going through without any problem,” Telecel says in its statement.

Telecel in its statement has also apologised to its subscribers for the connection issue.

Telecel is Zimbabwe’s second largest mobile operator with 2.5 million subscribers, while Econet is the country’s largest telecoms firm with 8 million subscribers.