The Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe(Potraz) has confirmed that the number of subscribers in the country’s telecommunication sector has grown steadily from 11.1 million in 2003 to 11.4 million, making it a 2.6 percent growth.
In addition to that the country’s regulatory authority reports says that Econet maintained its pole position, recording a 2.1 percent growth to 6.5 million active subscribers; resulting to a subscriber total of 8.9 million.
The report also noted that, NetOne had recorded a 13.8 percent increase to 2.7 million subscribers from 2.4 million over the same period in 2013. Its total number of subscribers was 4.3 million subscribers. Telecel, on the other hand, recorded a decrease of 7.4 percent to 2.2 million active subscribers from 2.4 million in 2013. Telecel had a total of 4.8 million subscribers.
The authority stated that: “Due to the decline in active subscriptions, Telecel’s market share fell to 19.5 percent from 21.6 percent in the second quarter of 2014. As a result, Telecel had the smallest market share in the third quarter.”
Subscribers using mobile money transfer services rose by 16.3 percent to reach 4.9 million from 4.2 million in the previous quarter. The total value of transfers and transactions on mobile money services increased by 35,8 percent to 3.2 million from 6.8 million recorded in the previous quarter.
In addition to this, the Internet penetration rate increased by 0.5 percent to reach 47.5 percent from 47 percent recorded in the previous quarter.