Telecoms revenue down 5.8% to $244.7 mln; mobile penetration declines to 84%

Taurai Mangudhla

Zimbabwe’s three mobile network operators recorded a 5,8 percent slump in revenues in the first quarter of 2018 to $244,7 million compared to the final quarter of 2017 on account of growing use of over the top services OTT and a surge in consumer spending during the festive season, industry regulator Potraz has said.

In the last quarter 2017, the mobile networks recorded revenues
amounting to 4259,7 million.

“Total mobile revenues were consistently increasing over the course of 2017, but declined in the first quarter of 2018,” said Potraz in its sector performance report for the first quarter of 2018.

On the other hand, total operating costs increased by 36% to $185,9 million while mobile investments jumped 70% to $14 million.

Total mobile voice traffic decreased by 1% to record 1,1 billion minutes in the quarter under review again due to OTTs.

The use of data and OTTs also saw a 15,5% decline in fixed voice calls and 8% fall in outbound roaming.

Total mobile data usage, however, fell marginally by 0,18% to 5,22 million GB in the first quarter of 2018.

Potraz said revenues by internet access providers increased by 52% to record 479, 5 million in the quarter under review.

The active internet penetration rate increased by 13% to reach 52,15 percent in the first quarter of 2018 following a 3,6% growth in active internet subscribers.

Potraz director general Dr Gift Machengete said internet penetration is mostly in the urban areas, now near saturation while the rural areas lag behind.

In terms of mobile subscribers, the industry recorded a 16,8 decline in active subscribers to 11,7 million due to a network clean up.  The decline came, mostly, from the NetOne database cleanup. NetOne shed about 47% of its subscribers after the cleanup exercise while Telecel lost 12%. Econet instead reported a 2,2% growth in active subscribers to 7,7 million. NetOne active subscribers closed the period at 2,6 million while Tecelel stood at 1,4 million.

“Net One’s subscriber decline is attributed to the challenges it faced with its Onefusion product which resulted many subscribers abandoning their network. The decline also reflects that NetOne had a lot of dormant subscribers who did not perform any revenue generating activity in the first quarter 2018,” said Potraz.

The mobile penetration rate, said Dr Machengete, decreased significantly by 18,1% to reach 84,6% in the quarter under review.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button