Inyatsi Group partners with Zambia’s new 4th mobile operator

Ntombi Mhlongo

LUSAKA – Inyatsi Group of Companies has partnered with Zambia’s new 4th mobile operator Zedmobile.

Inyatsi Group is not new in the Telecom space, having founded Eswatini’s second mobile operator Eswatini Mobile in 2016. On Wednesday, Zedmobile was launched as Zambia’s fourth mobile telecommunications operator and has made a promise to deliver the best network for Zambians.

Eswatini Mobile Chief Executive Officer Jeff Penberton is already in Zambia where he is working with locals to get the mobile operator ready to roll out its network six months from now. Penberton, an experienced telecommunications expert who helped in the setting up of Eswatini Mobile to an established operator since it went live in 2017, is expected to impart similar expertise to Zedmobile.

The Zedmobile network rollout will be in three phases: the first call is scheduled for June 2023 as part of phase one, which is expected to be completed by August 2023; Phase two will be completed by October 2023, and phase three will be done by December 2023.

“Per our licence conditions, we will deploy the Zedmobile network in all regions of Zambia and cover 82 per cent of the population by December 31, 2023,” said Zedmobile Director Sydney Sichula.

With Huawei as the network infrastructure provider, ZedMobile has already committed itself to ensure that it becomes number one in mobile data and voice across Zambia by providing an affordable and reliable future-proof 5G network from the first day of operation.

Sichula acknowledged the existing industry players and congratulated their wonderful work to date as this has promoted much-needed competition.

“In all industries, competition is necessary because it pushes industry players to offer the best in terms of services to customers. We, therefore, look forward to working with all the industry players,” he said.

Zedmobile Vice Chairman Kelvin Hambwezya said the day of the launch was an emotional one for him because what began as a thought with his colleagues to one day own and operate a mobile business in Zambia had become a reality.

He thanked former President Edgar Lungu and the incumbent Hakainde Hichilema for the support they had given to making this dream come to fruition.

“The vision for Zedmobile is to give Zambia the best digital services, for both urban and rural areas. We are coming with 5G technology come July 2023,” Hambwezya said.

He said in February 2023, they will launch experience centres where customers can walk in and start to interact with Zedmobile to understand what the new operator is here for. He assured Zambians that they won’t let them down but will make them proud.

“We have partnered with Huawei and you know, they are a world-class provider of technology. We have bought the best technology there is on this planet. Give us the support and we won’t let you down,” the vice chairman added.

Meanwhile, Zambia’s Minister of Science and Technology Felix Mutati said the government awarded Beeline Telecoms Limited the Telecommunications licence in March 2020 through a transparent process spearheaded by Zambia Information and Communications Technology
Authority (ZICTA).

He said this will not only encourage local investment but also contribute to the Zambia government’s goals for national domestic growth.

“Through this investment, there will be global partnerships interested to partner with the government and Beeline Telecoms in the delivery of not only technology but also the transfer of skills in the local Zambians thereby closing the skills gap between local Zambian talent and that of the international environment,” the minister said.

Mutati said the government of President Hichilema promised the creation of jobs to the Zambian people and, therefore, he was at the launch to proudly announce that the coming of Zedmobile would ensure that its business objectives will help to contribute to sustainable development but also create 500 direct and decent jobs, coupled with another 500 indirect jobs.

He said the mandate given to Zedmobile is to close the digital divide with a nationwide, affordable and reliable service to all communities of Zambia; drive efficient and effective mobile data a d voice across Zambia; to roll out its network infrastructure countrywide that will enable an end to end ecosystem; to offer effective and efficient customer service; to foster robust quality of service of the mobile telecommunications network and to roll out a network that will support digital financial solutions for financial inclusion.

“This is in the government’s quest to become a prosperous middle-income nation by Vision 2030; to increase the socio-economy standards which require reliable digital Infrastructure; and to fuel innovation, competitive pricing and nationwide coverage,” said the minister.

He added that the Zambian government would hold Zedmobile to their word of providing an affordable and better network on all platforms but most particularly 5G, which every Zambian should be expected to upgrade to.