By 
By Ross Moyo
In a very interesting twist of things, Zimbabwe’s smallest Mobile Network Operator (MNO) by subscriber base Telecel was the only David that registered subscriber growth at the time when the sector has a stagnant market share.
To much shock, subscribers in certain areas are actually preferring the Telecel SIM cards either as the main SIM card or extra line as they unleash exciting promos for their 4g covered areas
According to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) sector report,
“Only Telecel registered a 4,34 percent growth in active mobile subscriptions.”
Telecel’s bringing down of the mobile industry’s Goliaths developments come at a time when, “the sector recorded a 1, 56 percent contraction in active mobile subscriptions from 14 973 816 recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 14,746,943 in the quarter under review.”
Telecel’s unexpected strides resulted in a, “1,56 percent decline in mobile penetration rate to 96, 14 percent in the first quarter of 2024 from 97,7 percent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.”
Whilst Telecel basked in the glory of a Forrest growth in leaps and bounds enlarging its subscriber territory base, for the two giants, “the major decline in active mobile subscriptions emanated from NetOne which contracted by 5,52 percent followed by Econet which recorded a marginal 0,04 percent decline in active mobile subscriptions.”
This translates to Econet active subscribers declining by -0,04% to 10 436 233, from 10 440 693 during the quarter ended December 31, 2023.
State-owned NetOne subscribers fell to 4 017 167 during the review period, from 4 251 791 during the quarter to December 31, 2023, but Telecel proved to be recovering from a slowdown the previous quarter to add 1,73% new active subscribers.
Overally the country’s telecoms sector lost a combined 250 000 active subscribers during a 2024 first quarter marked by economic turmoil behind consumers ditching only Econet and NetOne lines.
Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority data showed active subscribers in the country’s three mobile telecoms firms coming off 1,56% during the period to 14 739 613 at the end of the quarter under review, from 14,973,816 during the 2023 fourth quarter.Clearly there was a 234,203 drop in active subscribers in just three months.
The above shows that Telecel has 0.35% of the data traffic market share. All from 1.94% of the active subscribers. This is better than the 0.13% market share they have in voice traffic and it’s also encouraging to see that usage increased significantly which led to Telecel maintaining 0.35% share from Q3 2023.
Comments