Covid-19 widens Zim’s

The outbreak of Covid-19 has widened the digital divide between Zimbabwe’s urban and rural population at a time the use of data services is on the increase.

According to figures obtained from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz), data usage went up by 37% last year as people were confined to their homes.

The advent of national lockdowns to slowdown the spread of Covid-19 saw urban consumers of telecommunications services resorting to e-learning services and telecommuting.

Potraz’s annual postal and telecommunications sector performance report for 2020 says service providers were hard hit by the lockdowns despite an improvement in revenues.

“The Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected various sectors, posing economic hardship for consumers, businesses and communities across the globe,” the authority said in the report.

“The telecommunications sector was not an exception.

“Like most essential sectors, the industry found itself on the frontline, using all of its capacity to deliver connectivity to homes, businesses and governments, to keep nations afloat as the pandemic raged on.”

Potraz said the gap between Zimbabwe’s urban and rural areas in accessing digital services became more apparent during the lockdowns.

“Notably, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the extent of exclusion and deepened pre-existing inequalities in access to digital services,” reads the report.

“The broadband gap between the urban and rural areas is more evident and is an obstacle towards the implementation of programmes such as e learning at national level.”

Meanwhile, total mobile and fixed voice traffic declined by 0.9% to record 6 095 683 710 minutes in 2020 from 6 150 783 671 minutes recorded in 2019.

International incoming voice traffic declined by 20.6% to record 136.,7 million minutes from 172,4 million minutes recorded in 2019.

International outgoing traffic also declined by 59.3% to record 25,7 million minutes from 63,1