Zimbabwe’s state-owned fixed phone and internet operator, TelOne has acquired a broadcasting licence for Video-on-Demand (VoD) services.
VOD is an interactive TV technology that enables subscribers to view programming in real time or download programs and view them later.
The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) granted an operating license to TelOne to create a VoD. The operator had initially set June of 2017 as the time frame to deploy its VOD services, but this had to be postponed due to the regulator’s licensing conditions.
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With more than 100,000 Internet subscribers, in both fibre and ADSL, TelOne hopes that its service will quickly adjust into the consumption habits of audiovisual content in Zimbabwe. This capacity is expected to expand by more than 100% in the next few years to reach 250 000 by 2020. To adjust to the influx of users, the operator is considering the improvement of its infrastructure and especially its flow, which is not suitable to make the VoD at the moment.
This license is expected to change the broadcasting ecosystem in Zimbabwe, considering both MultiChoice and Kwese TV will be TelOne’s competition and fighting for market share.