Zimbabwe mobile penetration rate increases to over 97 percent

Harare, (New Ziana) – Zimbabwe’s mobile phone penetration has now reached a high of 97.5 percent, with a six percent growth in active mobile subscriptions registered in the third quarter of the year, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has said.

In its sector performance report made available on Wednesday, POTRAZ director general, Dr Gift Machengete said active mobile subscriptions during the third quarter covering July, August and September reached 14 794 579 from the 13 955 937 recorded during the second quarter.

The growth in mobile subscriptions was heavily driven by the expansion of NetOne’s subscriber base. In the period, Econet realized a marginal subscriber growth of 2.2 percent, while Telecel’s continued to diminish.

Econet’s 2,2 percent variance translated to a subscription increase from 10 094 328 to 10 319 991, that of Netone rose by 17.4 percent from 3 554 075 to 4 171 224, while Telecel recorded a -1.4 percent decline from 307 534 subscribers to 303 364, resulting in a two percent decline in market share.

Despite recording a 2.6 percent decline in its market share to 69.8 percent from 72.3 percent during the second quarter, Econet continued its dominance during the quarter under review, while Netone’s market share increased from 25.5 percent during the second quarter to 28.2 percent in the third.

The increase in active subscriptions translated to a growth in mobile penetration of 5.6 percent to 97.5 percent from 91.9 percent during the second quarter, while mobile operator revenues grew by 95.3 percent to ZWL850.8 billion from ZWL435.7 billion.

“On the other hand, operating costs grew by 99.3 percent to record ZWL430.0 billion, from ZWL215.8 billion, mobile voice traffic increased by 30.0 percent to record 3.29 billion minutes from 2.53 billion minutes,” said Dr Machengete. “The total number of active Internet and data subscriptions increased by 7.5 percent to reach 10 647190 from 9 902 500. The Internet penetration rate increased by 4.9 percent to reach 70.1 percent from 65.2 percent. Mobile Internet and data traffic increased by 6.2 percent to record 44, 67 Petabytes, from 42, 06 Petabytes.”

The POTRAZ report said used incoming international Internet bandwidth capacity increased by 6.6 percent to 339 915Mbps from 318,742Mbps.

Fixed voice traffic (PSTN) declined by 3.3 percent from 72.4 million minutes to 70 million minutes while total active fixed telephone lines increased by three percent to reach 310 518, from 301 465 resulting in
increased fixed tele density of 0.06 percent from 1.99 percent to 2.05 percent.

IAP revenues grew by 138.1 percent to ZWL449.3 billion, from ZWL191.2 billion recorded in the second quarter of this year while operating costs for IAPs grew by 14.4 percent to ZWL256.2 billion from ZWL224 billion recorded in the previous quarter.

“Total postal and courier volumes increased by 6.8 percent to record 573,291 from 536,986 items, total revenue generated by the postal and courier sector increased by 53.3 percent to record ZWL30.7 billion, from
ZWL20 billion,” the report said. “Operating costs increased by 50.0 percent to record ZWL32.8 billion, from ZWL21.9 billion.”

The report attributed the significant growth in mobile voice traffic to an eroded voice tariff which fluctuated around US$0.01 (One USD cent) for on-net calls throughout the quarter.

On-net bundles and promotions by operators also played a big role in the significant growth in traffic which resulted in a 37.5 percent surge in net on net traffic, which is the major traffic growth driver in the quarter under review.

Again Econet continued to dominate the internet and data section with 4.3 percent growth of its market share to 78.3 percent, whereas NetOne lost its market share by the same margin to 21.3 percent, while Telecel increased its share from 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent.

New Ziana