Online Reporter
Business Reporter
Econet maintained its position as the leading mobile digital services provider as the country’s data and internet traffic rose nearly 12 percent in the first quarter of 2026, driven by expanding network infrastructure and growing smartphone adoption, according to the latest Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) sector report.
According to Potraz the country’s mobile data and internet traffic grew by 11,85 percent to 179,33 petabytes (PB) during the quarter, up from 160,33PB in the final quarter of 2025.
Econet recorded a 20,14 percent increase in mobile data traffic to 156,4 billion megabytes from 130,18 billion megabytes, while NetOne’s data traffic declined 23,97 percent to 22,79 billion megabytes and Telecel’s fell 15,98 percent to 149,04 million megabytes.
The surge in data consumption lifted Econet’s mobile internet and data traffic market share by 6,01 percentage points to 87,21 percent. NetOne’s share dropped by 5,98 percentage points to 12,71 percent, while Telecel’s edged down 0,03 percentage points to 0,08 percent.
Potraz said Zimbabwe’s growing appetite for data reflects global trends, with internet traffic increasing 57,28 percent year-on-year from 114,02PB in the first quarter of 2025.
“This has been necessitated by accelerated infrastructure deployment, particularly LTE and next-generation 5G footprints, increased smartphone adoption and increased use of embedded data-hungry applications, among other key drivers,” the regulator said in its Postal & Telecommunications Abridged Sector Performance Report for the First Quarter of 2026.
Econet continued to expand its network during the quarter, adding 13 new 5G base stations, to increase its 5G footprint to 353 sites in a quarter it also added new 126 LTE base stations. The report showed that Econet exited the first quarter of 2026 with a total of 7 430 base stations, followed by NetOne with 4 878, and Telecel trailing the other two operators with a total of 1 123 base stations.
The report showed traditional voice services continuing to lose ground to data services, as consumers increasingly shift to internet-based communication platforms.
Total mobile voice traffic fell 8,38 percent to 4,64 billion minutes during the quarter, down from 5,07 billion minutes in the previous quarter.
Potraz attributed the decline to lower net-on-net and cross-network calls, seasonal changes in consumer behaviour following the festive period and the growing use of over-the-top (OTT) applications offering cheaper voice and video communication.
“This downward trend (in voice services) is attributable to the cyclic nature of consumer behaviour during and after the festive season, as well as the gradual shift from traditional voice calls to Over-the-Top (OTT) data-driven applications that offer both voice and video functionalities via flexible Internet bundles at a lower cost,” the report said.
Despite the overall drop in voice traffic across the industry, Econet marginally increased its market share of voice from 88,32 percent to 88,34 percent.
SMS traffic also continued its downward trend, falling 8,89 percent from 2,77 billion messages to 2,52 billion during the quarter, largely due to reduced net-on-net messaging.
