02/09/2019
Zimbabweans are relying on Tesla Inc. to help them pay their bills. Amid power outages of as long as 18 hours a day, Econet Wireless Ltd., Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile-phone operator, is turning to the Palo Alto, California-based automaker and storable-energy company for batteries that can keep its base stations running. The southern African country faces chronic shortages of physical cash, so almost all transactions are done digitally, and many via phones.
“Telecommunications have become the lifeblood of the economy,” said Norman Moyo, the chief executive officer of Distributed Power , which installs the batteries for Econet. “If the network is down in Zimbabwe, you can’t do any transactions.” The installation of 520 Powerwall batteries, with two going into each base station, is the largest telecommunications project in which Tesla has participated to date, Moyo said.
Zimbabweans are relying on Tesla Inc. to help them pay their bills.
