Massive Demand for Econet Broadband, Ecolife

Wednesday, 03 November 2010

Econet Wireless says Econet Broadband and Ecolife, two services launched by the company over the past month, have been runaway successes surpassing anything the company has experienced before. Within just one week, Econet Broadband has expanded to more than 100 000 connected customers and the company is bracing itself for continued rapid growth well into coming year. Ecolife, the life insurance product jointly run by Econet and First Mutual Life, is also seeing subscriber numbers double every week. The number of Zimbabweans on Ecolife has now gone past 300 000 just a month after launch. Econet Wireless CEO Mr Douglas Mboweni said management was astounded but delighted by the better-than-expected demand for the two services. It had taken over 15 months of development to get Ecolife to market, he said.   "This is not something you buy off the shelf. It runs on very sophisticated software, and it had to be developed for our specific needs," Mr Mboweni said.   Adding that having a shareholding in Afre, the parent company of FML, had made it easier to develop the service. More insurance products would follow soon, including a service for the Zimbabwean Diaspora, he disclosed. On broadband, Mr Mboweni reported both demand and usage were strong. Much of the demand was being driven by users of Econet Broadband's "On the Go" service, which gives users internet access on their mobile phones.   *Once the 3G system was expanded, these phones automatically connected themselves to 3G and gave their owners the ability to send and receive emails.   Mr Mboweni said Econet did not know the number of people with this type of phone was that high.   "A lot of people realised that we would be expanding this service, and quickly bought the right type of phone. Now they are really enjoying the full capability of their phones," he said.