HARARE - Econet Wireless Zimbabwe (Econet) — the country’s largest mobile network operator — says it has reached eight million subscribers.

George Barbaressos, Econet’s commercial director said demand for Econet’s lines remained “very, very strong”.

“People have realised that we offer the best in terms of value for money, product range, coverage and customer service” Barbaressos said.

The subscriber growth is driven by the company’s Buddie Zone, a discounted talk-time promotion largely borrowed from South Africa’s MTN.

Econet also announced that its mobile money transfer service, EcoCash, customers had also reached two million.

Barbaressos said the key factor in Econet’s dominance was investment.

“We have spent and continue to spend more money on our network than all our competitors combined,” he said.

He said customer service was the group’s main focus in 2013.

“We are going to expand and improve our network of shops, expand our call centres, and we are going to train our staff to ensure that the core values of our founder drive the company at all levels.”

Meanwhile, Econet — which acquired TN Bank — said plans are at an advanced stage to restructure the financial institution so that it can process loan applications for cell phones and IPads. - Business Writer