Prospects high for telcoms sector

Prospects for the telecommunications sector are high as the country anticipates increased economic activity on the back of a good agriculture season, which will result in increased disposable incomes.

Agriculture is the backbone of the economy employing over half of the population and accounting for about three quarters of the raw materials needed in the manufacturing sector.

The ongoing Covid-19 vaccination programme should see activity improving across sectors as the country restores normalcy and moves towards recovery.

This is expected to boost demand for telecommunication products and services.

Already, the sector being an essential service provider, has played a crucial role in enabling smooth flow of communication, connect remote endpoints, enable financial transactions, enterprise operations, Government administration, healthcare and communications.

The sector is expected to continue playing this role on a higher scale as demand continues to rise with more economic activity in the country and across the globe.

“The anticipated increase in economic activity will create more employment opportunities and increase disposable incomes, which will help boost aggregate demand.

“Resultantly, we are likely to witness a surge in demand for communication services, in particular data and courier volumes as consumers adapt to the new normal of life.

“Hence, digitalisation is likely to be scaled up, with operators repositioning themselves by upgrading and automating their networks to enhance agility to deliver new services or applications to meet fast changing and versatile consumer demands,” said regulator Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe ( in their sector performance report for the 2020 fourth quarter.

The regulator also sees operators pumping more money towards faster broadband technologies such as 4G and probably, 5G.

Said POTRAZ: “Given the demand in broadband, and the competition in its provision, there will be renewed focus on customers’ needs by taking a more refined approach to customer engagement.”

During the fourth quarter total revenues increased across segments although operating costs also worsened in line with increase in costs of goods and services.

Mobile operator revenues grew by 37,5 percent to record $12,3 billion from $8,94 billion in the previous quarter. But operating costs for mobile network operators grew by 125,5 percent to record $5,7 billion on the back increased cost of doing business. Staff costs, depreciation and bandwidth costs constituted the bulk of mobile network operating costs.

Figures from the regulator show that revenue generated by the fixed telephone network grew by 41,7 percent to record $1,4 billion although operating costs also increased by 76,1 percent to $1,37.

Internet access providers· ( IAP) recorded revenues grew by 59,5 percent to $4,6 billion while total operating costs also grew by 31,6 percent.

During the quarter under review, mobile internet and data traffic grew by 13,1 percent to record 16,834TB from 14,878TB in the third quarter of 2020. ·

In terms of voice, fixed telephone voice traffic grew by 8,3 percent to record 98,2 million.

However, total mobile voice traffic declined by 3,3 percent to record 1,51 billion minutes from 1,56 billion minutes recorded in the third quarter. Of recent, mobile voice traffic has been on the decline as the market opts for social media-based voice and video calls.