Zimbabwe’s beleaguered fixed-line operator TelOne has said its use of an outdated analogue system is putting it at risk of losing subscribers to companies offering mobile and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) products.

Analogue telephony alters voice signals into electrical pulses, and it is a technology that has been in existence for decades. However, analogue telephones lines are limited as compared to digital telephone lines, which are capable of carrying far more data.

A report this week said that TelOne has lost close to 50 000 fixed phone subscribers in the past two years. The operator has over 350,000 fixed line subscribers according to the country’s Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Portraz)

"The company still has about 48% of its network equipment running on analogue which has no capacity to offer services currently demanded by customers," TelOne officials said in the statement.

"TelOne is still operating a significant amount of legacy equipment which has become obsolete and suffers from constant breakdowns," further reads the statement.

Because most of TelOne’s equipment is outdated, it is unable to offer other services that are on demand on the market, experts told ITWeb Africa.

The company says it requires about $300 million to digitise its operations, but this need comes at a time when the operator says it is owed $200 million in unpaid fees.