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Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE total number of active mobile phone subscribers reached 11,9 million in the first quarter this year compared to 11,8 million in the last quarter of 2014, official figures show. According to its latest performance report, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) also indicated that mobile penetration rate increased from 90,3 percent recorded in the previous quarter to reach 90,8 percent.
“The mobile telephone sector recorded a slight increase in subscriptions by 0.5 percent to reach 11,859,155 from 11,798,652 recorded in the previous quarter while mobile subscriptions registered a marginal increase. The total mobile revenues and mobile traffic however registered a decline,” said the report.
An economic commentator Trust Chikohora said there has been a lot of activity in the country’s telecommunications sector with regards to the mobile phone operators trying to reach potential subscribers. “Increase in penetration rate tends to diminish when it reaches saturation point. This is the case with the rate of penetration in the country’s telecommunications sector.
“The country has a population of 13 million people, and close to 12 million people are active subscribers so as we approach the 13 million population mark, the rate of mobile network subscribers tends to slow down.
“This explains why the country registered a slight increase of 0,5 percent in mobile phone subscriptions,” he said.
“As mobile money transfer grows, it also means more people would require the phones to transact, this also explains why mobile phone penetration rate has increased.”
The mobile operators registered a 14,2 percent decline in revenue to $188,5 million during the period under review as voice earnings continue to fall following a slash in tariffs early this year and the growing use of internet-based platforms. Potraz said mobile network operators realised a total of $188,5 million during the quarter compared to $219,7 million in the last quarter of 2014 after total traffic declined by 17 percent.
In January, Potraz abandoned the COSITU pricing framework — an International Telecommunications Union’s model for determining costs and tariffs (including interconnection and accounting rates) for telephone services — in favour of a long run incremental cost (LRIC) model that saw voice tariffs crumbling by close to 35 percent to 15 cents per minute.
In the quarter under review, the number of active internet subscriptions declined by 1.6 percent to reach 5.8 million subscribers from 5.9 million subscribers recorded in the previous quarter. “The internet penetration rate declined from 45 percent to 44.3 percent as a result of the decline in internet subscribers,” said the report.
The regulatory authority also reported that the total traffic processed on the fixed telephone network declined by 10.1 percent to record 169,948,500 minutes from 189,059,292 minutes recorded in the previous quarter.
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