Customers of Mozambican operator Tmcel without services in Maputo after vandalism

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Customers of Mozambican operator Tmcel without services in Maputo after vandalism

2:22 CAT | 07 Mar 2025

File photo: Domingo

Mozambican mobile network operator Tmcel today complained about the vandalism of equipment in several locations in Maputo, leaving customers without voice and data services in the capital.

In a statement, the state-owned operator explained that “due to the vandalism of cabinets located on the sidewalks”, which contain support equipment, including for the fixed network, “some customers in downtown Maputo, Matola, Polana, Alto-Maé and Malhangalene are without services”.

“Every effort is being made to normalize the situation as soon as possible”, said Moçambique Telecom (Tmcel), one of the three mobile network operators in the country.

The company said it has “invested in raising awareness in communities and working with local authorities, promoting measures to reinforce surveillance”.

The aim is to “avoid this type of incident that seriously compromises the provision of services, and so every citizen is invited to be vigilant in their area to protect these infrastructures”, the operator urges.

Tmcel reduced its losses by more than half in 2023, closing the financial year with a negative net result of 2,130 million meticais (30.5 million euros).

According to the 2023 report and accounts, to which Lusa had access, the operator had recorded losses of almost 4,333 million meticais (62.1 million euros) in 2022 and ended the following year with 1,842,679 active customers on the mobile network and 27,466 on the fixed network.

The report recalls that the State, as the majority shareholder (92% of the share capital) represented by the State Participation Management Institute (IGEPE), intervened in Tmcel in March 2023, “with a view to improving its performance”, putting forward a Revitalization Plan, approved two months later.

On December 31, 2023, Tmcel had negative equity of more than 10,122 million meticais (145 million euros), resulting from accumulated results from previous years, and liabilities of 37,925 million meticais (543.7 million euros), which exceeds the total assets of 27,802 million meticais (398.6 million euros).

Tmcel was established in December 2018, as a result of the merger of the now defunct Telecomunicações de Moçambique (TDM) and Moçambique Celular (Mcel), to “create a single, competitive and sustainable entity in the market”, the document stated.

At the time of its establishment, Tmcel – whose share capital is still 8% held by former employees of the two now defunct companies – had a workforce of 2,054 employees. By 2022, that number had fallen to 1,476, with the operator closing 2023 with a total of 1,370 employees.

By the end of 2023, as a result of the implementation of the second phase of the network modernization and expansion project, which began in January 2022, the operator reported that a total of 966 ‘sites’ – transmission antennas – were “modernized and/or activated” (478 throughout last year), out of the 1,077 planned until the completion of the project.

Also within the scope of the network modernization and expansion, which began in January 2022, after “almost ten years without investment”, Tmcel, which operates a support network of 7,600 kilometers of optical fiber and 8,500 kilometers of access networks, had already increased, in 2023, broadband coverage from 10 to 400 gigabits per second (Gbps), and global coverage by 4.5G in the mobile network.

Source: Lusa