daniel chigunwe
Enacy Mapakame
Total mobile operator revenues for 2023 first quarter grew by 34,8 percent to record $161,1 billion, compared to previous quarter, although not enough to offset impacts of the inflationary pressures.
Figures from the regulator, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), show a worrisome trend where operating costs have also been racing, closing in on revenues and putting pressure on profit margins.
The trend is prevalent not only in the telecoms sector alone but across sectors as high inflation pushes prices of products and services up. However, unlike other services that may have alternative local supply, the provision of telecommunication relies heavily on imports mainly equipment, software as well as bandwidth.
“The economic environment directly affects the performance of the postal and telecommunication sector. The inflationary environment, unavailability of credit, reduced consumer spending, inadequate foreign currency amongst other challenges continued to beset the sector,” said POTRAZ in a sector performance report for the quarter.
“The situation has been aggravated by prolonged load-shedding, impacting overall quality of service, and raising the cost-of-service provision. Inadequate foreign currency has affected network expansion and maintenance efforts,” said POTRAZ adding the sector should be prioritised in terms of Government expenditure, resource mobilisation, foreign currency allocation amongst other issues, to fully realise its role as a key economic enabler.
During the quarter under review, operating costs grew by 25,7 percent to $102,8 billion, from $81,7 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022. In terms of capex, national switching continued to influence capital expenditure for the sector as evidenced by 11,4 percent growth across mobile operators in the first quarter of 2023.
During the quarter under review, a total of 86 new base stations were deployed in the first quarter of 2023, as compared to 175 base stations deployed in the fourth quarter of 2022.
LTE has the highest number of deployments, followed by 3G.
“This shows that the investment thrust of mobile network operators is in broadband networks,” said POTRAZ.
In terms of subscriber base, the total number of active mobile subscriptions declined by 1,7 percent, to reach 14,051,251, from 14,300,790 recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022. Hence, the mobile penetration rate declined by 1,6 percent, to reach 92,6 percent, from 94,2 percent recorded in the previous quarter.
Mobile voice traffic declined by 16 percent to record 2,5 billion minutes in the first quarter of 2023, from 3 billion minutes recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022.
According to the regulator, mobile Internet and data traffic increased by 12,3 percent to record 37,690.4 Terabytes in the first quarter of 2023, from 33,576.4 Terabytes recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Despite the challenging business environment, POTRAZ still sees opportunities for the sector.
“Nevertheless, there is still great scope for the sector and opportunities are awash. We envisage an emerging set of opportunities presented by the converged licensing framework as evidenced by an increase in applications for Mobile Virtual Network licences, which will boost competition in the sector.
“With ever-expanding options for high-quality communication and Internet services from LTE, Fibre, satellite amongst others, consumers will enjoy more enhanced service flexibility in purchasing and consuming services in the near future.
“Digital transformation also presents significant opportunities for postal and courier operators in terms of improving service delivery, while pivoting to new more efficient business models,” said POTRAZ.
Bongani Ndlovu