By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
Leading mobile operator NetOne posted an impressive 4.5 percent share for active mobile subscriptions according to 4th Quarter Sector Performance Reports by Postal and Telecommunication Authority of Zimbabwe.
NetOne has 4,279,427 active subscriptions in 3rd quarter which rose to 4,470,592 recording 4.5 percent variance while Econet had 9,073,236 active subscriptions in 3rd quarter up 2.0 percent to 9,253453 in 4th quarter.
Telecel Zimbabwe market share dropped -8.4 percent from 582,570 to 533,545 of the market share during the period under review.
The total number of active mobile subscriptions increased by 2.3% to reach 14,257,590 in the fourth quarter of 2021 from 13,935,233 recorded in the third quarter of 2021.
The mobile penetration rate was 94.4%; up from 93.5% recorded in the third quarter of 2021.
Econet and Telecel lost market share by 0.2% and 5%, respectively, whereas NetOne gained market share by 0.7%.
Presenting the Q4 report, Potraz Director-General Dr Gift Machengete, attributed the poor performance by Telecel due to impact of Covid-19 pandemic and shareholding structure.
“That shouldn’t really surprise us, we all know that at the moment Telecel is facing some problems, Problems of capitalization and obviously, that has something to do with this decline. And also not forgetting the impact of Covid-19 during that period as well.
“And NetOne Q3 we had 30,7 percent market share which increased to 31.4 percent although it was a slight increase this is a positive increase and it can also be explained by activities that NetOne has been undertaking to try and increase their subscription base so as to increase their market share.
“Then Econet 65.1 percent in the Q3 and slight drop 64.9 percent in the Q4 obviously if you are sharing one big cake if one increases a share it means the share has been taken from somewhere so I think they lost some subs to NetOne who then benefitted from that increase,” Dr Machengete said.
There was a high number of LTE deployments by Econet and NetOne in the quarter under review. Out of the 186 deployed LTE eNode Bs, 69 were in rural areas vis-à-vis 117 deployed in urban areas.
NetOne has partnered with Huawei on a broadband expansion project, hence the 100 deployments by them in the quarter under review.
Some of the exciting and innovative packages by NetOne include the OneMoney Remit, The Dollar A Day promotion and also cheaper data tariffs.
Total mobile voice traffic declined by 14.3% to record 1.8 billion minutes in the fourth quarter of 2021 from 2.1 billion minutes recorded in the third quarter of 2021. The traffic per mobile voice category is shown in table 2 below:
Dr Machengete said 2021 was characterized by increased reliance on work – from – home, e-learning, e-conferencing resulting from the COVID – 19 effects.
“As such, there was an increased demand for online or Internet connection. Increased demand for Internet connection as well as the dynamic developments and fast-changing technological advances added pressure to the sector, in terms of service delivery. Liquidity constraints coupled with the sector’s in ability to have foreign direct investment, meant much of investment was financed by retained income.
“The various economic reforms by the Government of Zimbabwe have potential to positively transform the economy in 2022.
However, he said, as was with the previous year, cost escalations are expected to continue, for as long as the dual currency system remains in practice.
“Hence, the intricacy of balancing service affordability and operator viability remains a priority for the regulator to address, whilst fiscal interventions may be necessary.
“It is hoped that the recent liberalisation of the foreign currency market will improve foreign currency availability to the sector for investment in network expansion and upgrades for inclusive, high quality service delivery,” Dr Machengete said.
About Author
