The Zimbabwe government owned mobile operator, NetOne has confirmed its intention to roll out a sizeable network expansion and upgrade project involving the construction of 2 000 base stations in 2017 - beginning with 600 in Q1.

The project is the company's response to ensure its network can facilitate user demand, largely as a result of the increasing availability of low-cost devices and rise in data volumes.

NetOne wants to extend its network coverage to rural areas and entrench its position in a competitive market.

Sites for installations have already been identified, according to CEO Brian Mutandiro.

He believes the project will give the telecoms firm the edge against its competitors - despite the company having made a loss of approximately US$3-million in the 2015 financial year.

Mutandiro said, "NetOne is now focusing on putting up base stations. The company is looking at brighter days ahead particularly if it can work on the slew of services that it has not aggressively pushed to the market like mobile money and data services."

According to Mutandiro NetOne's active subscriber base jumped 8.8 percent in the fourth quarter last year to 4,134 million while Econet was at 6, 7 million.