Business Reporter
Zimbabwe’s mobile telecommunications sector demonstrated robust health in the second quarter of the year, recording a significant rise in revenue, a drop in operating costs, and a massive surge in capital investment, according to the latest industry report.
Data from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) shows total revenue for mobile network operators grew by 9.24 percent to ZWG 6.71 billion. This growth occurred alongside a 5.47 percent decrease in operating costs, indicating improved operational efficiency across the sector.
The most striking increase was in capital expenditure, which skyrocketed by 261 percent to ZWG 1.53 billion. This investment is being channeled into network infrastructure, with operators deploying 68 new 5G base stations, bringing the national total to 252.
“The significant increase in deployment of LTE and 5G base stations will go a long way in enhancing connectivity, quality of service and network speeds,” POTRAZ stated in its Abridged Sector Performance Report.
The report underscores a fundamental shift in the industry, with data services now firmly at the forefront. Accounting for 47.97 percent of total revenue, data consumption is being driven by the widespread use of bandwidth-intensive platforms like Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok.
In contrast, traditional voice services continued their decline, with total voice traffic falling by 9.67 percent. POTRAZ attributed this trend to the “substitution effect” of Over-The-Top communication applications like WhatsApp and Zoom, which offer cheaper alternatives via the internet.
The results highlight a sector rapidly adapting to consumer demand, investing heavily in next-generation networks to solidify data as the new backbone of telecommunications in Zimbabwe.
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