Harare, (New Ziana) —Excessive dominance in the telecommunications sector in Zimbabwe recently came under the spotlight in the National Assembly as a matter of national interest, with legislators demanding more players, mandatory infrastructure sharing and cheaper data.
Chivi Central National Assembly Member Exevila Maoneke sparked the debate when he cited POTRAZ data showing one provider controlling close to 18 million subscribers in a market of about 17 million active users.
Decent Bajila (Emakhandeni-Luveve MP) and Clemence Chiduwa (Zaka South MP) agreed the three-player structure comprising Econet, NetOne/Telecel and TelOne is oligopolistic and compromises consumers in a market-driven economy.
“We must always try by all means to put ourselves in a space where we resist domination in everything we participate in,” said Bajila.
Chiduwa said while POTRAZ surveys show high mobile penetration, growth alone is not enough.
“Connectivity growth alone is not enough. We must ensure that connectivity is affordable, reliable and accessible to all,” he said, pointing to gaps such as high prices, inconsistent and poor-quality service, weak consumer redress and uneven investment between urban and rural areas.
Both called for Parliament to review legislation, empower the Competition and Tariffs Commission (CTC) to act against uncompetitive conduct and impose proportional obligations on dominant players to protect consumers.
Chiduwa also backed lowering entry barriers through regulatory sandboxes, innovation support and easing the business operating environment, plus fiscal incentives like tax reliefs, grants and public-private partnerships to strengthen the Universal Service Fund and close rural gaps.
Bajila and Warren Park MP Shakespear Hamauswa warned that licensing more operators does not automatically create competition without structural reforms, citing Telecel which has spent years in court battles yet still holds unused spectrum because there is no use-it-or-lose-it clause.
“Licencing more operators does not automatically lead to more competition if we do not come up with integrity of the processes through which a player gets into the market,” he said.
Hamauswa questioned why NetOne, despite state support and free line promotions throughout the country, failed to attract users, blaming unpersuasive services.
“I remember another year when NetOne was issuing lines free of charge when we were at Rufaro Stadium, but it did not help. Why? Because the services which they offer to the customers are not persuading them to keep on. Government should inject more funds into NetOne so that they can operate like Econet,” he said.
All contributors converged on deeper infrastructure sharing beyond towers, to include fibre, ducts and transmission, so that if one operator has a base station at a particular site, all the others can use it.
“There is a need for mobile network operators to share infrastructure. Where there is passive infrastructure, it can also be used by other mobile network operators,” said Chiduwa.
The legislators also proposed mobile number portability to retain numbers while switching networks, mandatory data usage alerts, roll-over of unused data, and allowing data transfers on the same network.
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