The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has released a press statement detailing the telecommunications sector’s performance in Q3 2020. One of the standout figures in the report was the massive uptick in mobile internet and data traffic in the third quarter.
In the second quarter, POTRAZ recorded 10 407 TB of data traffic in the country, but Q3 2020 saw a 43% increase in data traffic to 14 878TB. International bandwidth capacity usage also shot up by 16.8% to record 149 665 Mbps from the 128 173 Mbps that was recorded in Q2 of this year.
The increase in mobile internet and data traffic in Zimbabwe is, of course, down to the COVID-19 pandemic. E-learning, video conferencing and other internet services have been adopted widely in these strange times we are living in. This has resulted in figures being on the up for most of the year:
- Q1 2020 POTRAZ recorded 6 661 TB of TB which was a 2.8% increase from the 6 489 TB that was recorded in Q4 2019
- In the second quarter when the pandemic was at its peak and lockdown restrictions at their strictest. Internet traffic shot up by 56.2% from the 6 661 TB in Q1 to 10 407TB recorded in Q2.
With the figures for Q3 showing even more growth in internet traffic, it stands to reason that when the figures for Q4 come out we should expect more of the same.
2 comments
now what we need is for potraz to control data prices. its too expensive
They are the ones pushing for that rise in price, they are saying telcos are not making profits from those unjustified prices