Zimbabwe telephone companies rake in $186 million in three months

Zimbabwe’s telcos revenue in the quarter to June increased by 3.2 percent to $185.6 million from $179.8 million recorded in the previous quarter, the industry regulator has said.

Three mobile networks, Econet, Telecel and Netone operate in the country alongside state owned fixed line operator, Telone.

The number of active mobile subscribers grew 2.7 percent to 13 311 223 resulting in the mobile penetration rate increasing to 97 percent from 94.5 percent in the previous quarter.

Aggregate Average Revenue per user per month remained at $3.9 while aggregate Average Costs per user per month declined by 2.3 percent to record $3 from $3.07 in the previous quarter.

Total operating costs declined by 3.3 percent to $131.5million from $135.8million recorded in the previous quarter.

Mobile Internet data usage went up 15.8 percent from 2.6 million GB in the previous quarter to 3.1 million GB.

“The contribution of voice declined considerably to 53.5 percent from 58.9 percent recorded in the previous quarter. The contribution of internet and data remained at 21.5 percent,” Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) said in a quarterly report.

“Mobile money services registered the highest increase in contribution to total revenue from 10.2 percent to 13.1 percent. This is attributed to the increased use of mobile money for payment of transactions given the current cash shortages”.

Investment by mobile operators increased fivefold to record $50.5 million from $10.5 million invested in the previous quarter.

Revenue generated by the fixed telephone network declined by 2.2 percent to $28.5 million from $29.2 million in the previous quarter, despite a 3.7 percent increase in active lines.

The contribution of voice service to total revenue continued to decline, as fixed voice traffic declined by 16 percent to record 134.4 million minutes from 160 million.

While the contribution of data and internet services increased from 33 percent to 38 percent.- The Source

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