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Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has further solidified its telecommunications dominance after recording a 4.46% surge in active mobile subscribers during the first quarter of 2026.
According to the First Quarter 2026 Sector Performance Report published by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), Econet added over 552,000 active subscribers, expanding its customer base from 12,374,206 in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 12,926,399 in Q1 2026. This impressive growth elevated Econet’s market share of active mobile subscriptions from 73.75% to 74.80%.
To accommodate this relentless subscriber influx and keep up with demand, Econet has introduced the new 079 number range following the exhaustion of its previous 078 prefix series. Moving forward, new SIM card purchases will feature the 079 prefix as the operator expands its numbering capacity for new subscribers.
Econet’s growth significantly outpaced rival operators during the period. NetOne saw its subscriber base shrink by 1.27% to 4,049,492, dropping its market share to 23.43%. Meanwhile, Telecel posted a marginal 0.65% increase to 305,243 active subscriptions, holding a 1.77% market share.
On a national scale, mobile subscriptions expanded by 2.99% to 17.28 million, driving Zimbabwe’s overall mobile penetration rate up to 108.53%.
The surge in customer growth also drove Econet’s mobile data usage, which rose by 20.14% to reach 156.4 Petabytes, bringing its mobile data market share to 87.21%.
To support this growing family of users, Econet heavily invested in infrastructure during the quarter, deploying 74 new 2G, 74 3G, 126 LTE, and 13 next-generation 5G base stations to guarantee network capacity and quality of service.
By December 2027, the telecom giant also plans on doing away with 3G.
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