Zimbabweans Consume 160 Pentabytes Of Data in the Last Quarter

Zimbabweans used significantly more mobile internet in the last quarter of 2025, with data traffic rising 11.27% as consumers spent more time on streaming, social media and other data-heavy online services, new figures show.

According to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), total mobile internet and data traffic rose from 144.09 petabytes (PB) in the third quarter to 160.33PB in the fourth quarter, underlining the country’s fast-growing appetite for mobile connectivity.

The sharp rise points to a continued shift in how Zimbabweans use their mobile phones, with internet access increasingly overtaking traditional services such as voice calls and SMS as the main driver of digital activity. POTRAZ said the growth reflects stronger demand for data-intensive applications, supported by wider access to faster mobile networks.

Econet Wireless remained the biggest player in mobile data, carrying 130.18 billion megabytes (MB) of traffic in the quarter, up 9.79% from 118.58 billion MBs in the previous quarter.

NetOne increased growth, with mobile data traffic jumping 18.5% to 29.97 billion megabytes s from 25.29 billion megabytes while Telecel, recorded a 20.22% drop in mobile data traffic to 179.82 million megabytes.

Despite retaining a dominant lead, Econet lost a small portion of its market share in mobile internet traffic as NetOne gained ground.

POTRAZ said NetOne increased its mobile data market share by 1.14% during the quarter, while Econet and Telecel shed 1.09 and 0.05% respectively.

The latest figures show that while Econet still dominates Zimbabwe’s mobile data market, NetOne is steadily strengthening its position as competition in the internet segment intensifies..

WhatsApp remained the single biggest identifiable driver of mobile data use, accounting for 20.69% of total traffic, followed by YouTube at 9.53% and Facebook at 7.89% X, formerly Twitter, contributed just 0.4%.

The largest share, 61.48% fell under other services, a category POTRAZ said includes heavier-bandwidth platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Netflix, where video streaming consumes far more data.

A 14.73% increase in 5G base stations during the quarter in Zimbabwe, has helped network operators deliver faster speeds and support heavier internet usage contributing to the increase of data usage in the country.

POTRAZ said mobile internet and data services remained the biggest source of revenue for mobile network operators ahead of voice and other services.