Online Reporter
Michael Tome, Zimpapers Business Hub
Telecel Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe’s smallest mobile telecoms operator, continues to lose ground in an increasingly competitive telecommunications market, after its subscriber base shrank by about 4,6 percent in the third quarter of 2025 as long-standing operational challenges weigh on its performance.
According to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe’s (Potraz) 2025 third-quarter sector performance report, Telecel’s active subscriptions declined to 305 042 from 319 548 in the second quarter of 2025.
The decline contrasts sharply with developments at rivals Econet Wireless, the country’s biggest, and NetOne, the second-largest, which recorded subscriber growth of 2,39 percent and 1,90 percent respectively over the review period.
These figures highlight a period of stagnation for Telecel across nearly all product segments, reflecting the company’s constrained investment capacity and limited network expansion.
Latest data also show Telecel’s weakening position after the company lost 0,13 percentage points on its market share, deepening its loss of relevance in the subscriber market.
In contrast, Econet consolidated its dominance with a 0,19 percentage point increase in mobile subscription market share, while NetOne experienced a marginal dip of 0,06 percentage points.
Infrastructure deployment remains one of Telecel’s major constraints.
During the quarter under review, the operator did not add any new base stations, maintaining a network of 671 2G base stations, 435 3G sites, and just 17 LTE base stations.
The company still has no 5G infrastructure, at a time when competitors are expanding and modernising their networks to meet rising data demand.
“In the quarter under review, Telecel lost subscribers by 4,54 percent while Econet and NetOne increased subscribers by margins of 2,39 percent and 1,90 percent.
“Telecel is facing sustained challenges, marking a period of significant stagnation across all technologies,” said Potraz in its 2025 third-quarter sector performance report.
Potraz pointed to limited capital expenditure and slow network upgrades as key factors behind the operator’s under-performance.
However, there were modest positives in traffic metrics as Telecel’s mobile voice traffic subscriber base improved to 1 049 391 minutes in the third quarter from 944 584 minutes in the second quarter, representing growth of 11,10 percent.
Despite this rebound, the operator’s overall market position in mobile voice traffic remained subdued, holding steady at 0,02 percent market share.
Over the same period, NetOne gained 0,92 percentage points in voice traffic market share, while Econet lost an equivalent share.
In terms of mobile internet and data usage, Telecel recorded a 10,01 percent growth in traffic volumes to 225 377 147 megabytes in the third quarter, up from 204 869 723 megabytes in the previous quarter.
While the increase suggests continued demand for data services, it has not been sufficient to reverse the broader decline in subscriber numbers.
With Econet and NetOne continuing to strengthen their competitive positions through network investment and subscriber acquisition, Telecel risks further erosion of its market share unless it secures fresh capital, accelerates infrastructure rollout and improves service quality to stem customer attrition.
