Fibre Backbone Expands to 14,357 km, Liquid Leads with 32.3%

By Ross Moyo

Zimbabwe’s national fibre backbone reached 14,357 km in Q4 2025, marking a significant step in the country’s push for high-speed, resilient connectivity, according to the POTRAZ Fourth Quarter 2025 Sector Performance Report.

The expansion reflects sustained investment by Internet Access Providers and mobile operators as demand for data-intensive services continues to rise across urban and rural areas.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies maintained its position as the largest fibre owner, controlling 4,631.4 km, or 32.3% of the national backbone.However, internationally,
LIT network stretches across more than 20 countries, primarily in East, Central, and Southern Africa.Scale: It is described as being over twice the circumference of the earth.Key Infrastructure: Includes a direct terrestrial fibre link from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cairo, Egypt.Expansion: The network coverage is over 110,000 km.

TelOne followed with 4,046 km, representing 28.2%, while Powertel held 3,869 km, or 26.9% of the total network.

African Fibre Networks recorded 985 km, equal to 6.9%, after a 76.92% jump in equipped international bandwidth capacity during the quarter.

Dandemutande and Africom held 560 km and 266 km respectively, accounting for 3.9% and 1.9% of the backbone.

The fibre network underpins both mobile and fixed internet traffic, which reached 160.33 PB and 479.94 PB respectively in Q4 2025.

Mobile Network Operators deployed 47 new 5G and 167 LTE base stations, all requiring fibre backhaul to deliver the throughput and latency demanded by modern applications.

Fixed broadband subscriptions rose 8.25% to 389,146, with fibre subscriptions up 7.42% to 86,225 and Fixed LTE growing 6.99% to 143,323.

Used international incoming bandwidth capacity increased 10.88% to 604,440 Mbps, necessitating robust national transmission infrastructure.

Equipped international bandwidth capacity grew 6.46% to 1,688,770 Mbps, with Liquid holding 68.10% of that capacity.

IAP revenue reached ZWG 2.53 billion, while MNO revenue hit ZWG 7.74 billion, providing the financial base for continued fibre expansion.

POTRAZ said fibre is now critical for 5G backhaul, data centre interconnect, and enterprise services as businesses digitise operations.

The report’s 2026 outlook warns that fibre densification will determine quality of service as AI and cloud adoption accelerate across the economy.

Zimbabwe’s fibre growth also aligns with the National AI Strategy 2026–2030 and regional digital trade commitments under SADC.