MARTIN MAWAYA
HARARE–Zimbabwe’s postal and telecommunications sector saw a mixed performance in 2024, with increases in mobile and internet subscriptions but had a decline in fixed-line and postal courier services, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) has reported.
The report shows that the total number of active mobile subscriptions increased marginally by 4.7%, from 14,973,816 to 15,677,094 in 2024.
This resulted in the mobile penetration rate rising by 4.76 percentage points, from 97.5% in 2023 to 102.26% in 2024.
However, the total number of active fixed telephone lines declined by 3.75%, from 309,645 to 298,047, leading to a 0.06 percentage point drop in fixed tele-density, from 2.0% to 1.94%.
The total number of active internet data subscriptions increased by 11.14%, from 11,240,969 in 2023 to 12,493,098 in 2024.
Consequently, the internet penetration rate grew by 8.19 percentage points, from 73.3% to 81.49%.
“The postal and telecommunications sector is expected to evolve significantly in the year ahead driven by increasing digital adoption, network infrastructure development and an increasingly tech-savy population ,” reads the 2024 annual sector’s performance report by POTRAZ.
The sector has shown resilience in the face of various challenges, with mobile internet/data traffic consumption increasing by 75.09%, from 171.21 petabytes (PBs) in 2023 to 299.77PBs in 2024.
International internet bandwidth capacity also grew significantly, with used incoming capacity rising by 56.98% and used outgoing capacity increasing by 31.75%.
Total voice traffic increased by 12.82%, from 11.7 billion minutes in 2023 to 13.2 billion minutes in 2024, mainly due to an increase in national traffic and promotional offers by service providers.
On the other hand, postal and courier volumes declined by 28.74%, from 2,012,181 items in 2023 to 1,433,976 in 2024.
The sector also saw a trend of growing revenues, up 0.28% from $997.2 million in 2023 to $1 billion in 2024, despite rising operating costs, which increased by 20.01% to $636.8 million.
Telecommunications capital expenditure grew by 91.5%, from $55.4 million to $106.1 million, while postal and courier capital expenditure declined by 48.5%, from $454,404 to $234,207.
POTRAZ also issued 10 additional licenses in 2024, including three ISP national licenses, one network facilities services license, one mobile virtual network operator license, and five courier licenses.
The sector’s performance reflects the changing landscape, with increased competition and technological advancements.
“Overall, the sector is expected to register moderate growth albeit the possible disruption of the world economic order emanating from the ‘America first’ trade initiatives by the United States of America,” added POTRAZ.
