By Almot Maqolo.
HARARE, (News of The South) – Zimbabwe’s mobile internet and data traffic recorded a marginal growth in first quarter of 2020, with NetOne being the biggest mover owing to it’s promotions lucrative to the already depressed incomes, latest data shows.
The operating environment is characterised by inflationary pressures which have eroded people’s incomes making it difficult for already pressed Zimbabweans to recharge their mobile lines.
Latest data from Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) shows that a total of 6 661 Terabytes (TB) of mobile internet and data traffic were consumed in Q12020 representing a marginal 2.8 percent rise from 6 489 Terabytes (TB) reported in Q42020.
In-bundle data usage constituted 91.8 percent of total mobile internet and data usage down from 93.5 percent in the previous quarter.
Of the total mobile internet and data usage, WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook took 40.5 percent, 11.4 percent and 2.4 percent respectively. Twitter claimed a paltry 0.5 percent. Other internet and data usage share stood at 45.2 percent.
“The growing use of WhatsApp voice and video calling as substitutes for traditional voice calling by businesses and individuals has driven data usage by the WhatsApp platform,” POTRAZ stated.
In terms of traffic per operator, the country’s largest mobile operator Econet saw its market share of mobile internet and data usage declining from 70.2 percent in Q42019 to 67 percent. Telecel which is facing financial difficulties, also reported a decline in market share from 6.1 percent in previous quarter to 4.5 percent.
The marginal decline can be attributed to the poor services experienced from the two mobile operators and lack of lucrative promotions resulting in subscribers migrating to the other mobile operators.
However, NetOne market share rose to 28.5 percent from 23.7 percent.
“NetOne gained 4.8 percent market share in line with the growth in internet and data usage on their network,” it said.
On the other hand, there was an overall decline of 5.9 percent and 14 percent in the value of cash-in and cash-out transactions respectively largely on cash shortages in the economy. EcoCash continues to dominate the market in terms of the number and value of transactions.
Revenue generated by the mobile telephone networks rose 26.2 percent to record $2.1 billion from $1.65 billion. At the same time, mobile network operating costs grew by 46.1 percent to record $1.4 billion from $988.2 million.
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