Landline Calls Decline By 2.4 Million Minutes

Zimbabwe’s legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or landlines, continues its steady decline, shedding 2.42 million voice minutes in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the latest abridged sector performance report from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ).

Total PSTN voice traffic fell by 4.88%, from 49.75 million minutes in Q3 2025 to 47.33 million minutes in Q4. The contraction was most pronounced in international outgoing traffic, which collapsed by 51.69%, followed by international incoming calls, down 23.96%.

The decline is hardly surprising. Zimbabwean consumers are abandoning traditional fixed-line voice services in favour of data-centric alternatives, a trend reflected across the broader telecommunications sector. While PSTN minutes dwindled, mobile internet and data traffic surged by 11.27% to 160.33 Petabytes, and fixed internet traffic rose 8.86% to 479.94 Petabytes.

Mobile data now accounts for 50.75% of mobile network operators’ revenue, driven by intensive use of WhatsApp, YouTube, and TikTok. The “other” category of mobile data usage including high-definition video streaming on platforms like Netflix and Instagram represents a staggering 61.48% of total mobile data traffic.

Even as PSTN erodes, the broader fixed telephony segment showed marginal resilience. Active fixed telephone subscriptions inched up 0.92% to 304,383, driven entirely by a 3.15% increase in Fixed VoIP subscriptions. Liquid Intelligent Technologies continues to dominate that niche with a 53.52% market share.

With 5G base stations now numbering 366 and the launch of the Zimbabwe National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (2026–2030), the nation’s telecommunications future is unequivocally wireless and data-driven. This puts the legacy telephone network at risk.