Operating costs rising faster than revenues, voice increases lead over data & more from Potraz Q2 report

Staff Writer

4 October 2022

The Postal and Telecommunications regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), recently released the sector performance report for Q2 2022. Here are the highlights from the report:

• Active fixed telephone lines increased 1.5% to reach 246,722 in the second quarter of 2022, from
243,123 recorded in the first quarter of 2022; the fixed tele-density increased by 0.03% to reach
1.63%, from 1.6%.
• The total number of active mobile subscriptions declined by 2% to reach 14,006,034 in the second
quarter of 2022, from 14,289,085 recorded in the first quarter of 2022; Hence, the mobile
penetration rate declined by 1% to reach 92.3% from 93.3%.
• The total number of active Internet and data subscriptions declined by 3.5% to reach 9,293,560,
from 9,644,271 in the first quarter of 2022; the Internet penetration rate declined by 1.6% to reach
61.3% from 62.9%.
• Total fixed telephone voice traffic declined by 9% to record 83.7 million minutes in the second
quarter of 2020, from 92 million minutes recorded in the first quarter of 2022.
• Mobile voice traffic totalled 2.35 billion minutes in the second quarter of 2022. This represents a
32.6% growth from 1.77 billion minutes recorded in the first quarter of 2022.
• Mobile Internet & Data traffic totalled 25,756 terabytes, 16.8% up from 22,052 terabytes consumed
in the first quarter of the year.
• Used Outgoing International Internet Bandwidth Capacity increased by 4.6% to record
91,978Mbps, from 87,924 recorded in the first quarter of 2022.
• Total postal and courier volumes declined by 6% to record 523,342 items in the second quarter of
2022, from 556,618 items recorded in the first quarter of 2022
• Total mobile operator revenues grew by 35.1% to record ZWL38.9 billion in the second quarter of
2022, from ZWL28.8 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2022; On the other hand, operating
costs grew by 44.9% to record ZWL24.7 billion from ZWL17.01 billion.
• Revenue generated by the fixed telephone network grew by 38.2% to record ZWL5.15 billion, from
ZWL3.72 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2022; operating costs increased by 79.9% to record
ZWL5.7 billion from ZWL3.17 billion recorded in the previous quarter.
• IAP revenues grew by 45.5% to record ZWL15.07 billion in the second quarter of 2022, from
ZWL10.36 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2022; meanwhile, operating costs for IAPs grew
by 55.9% to record ZWL11.93 billion from ZWL7.65 billion recorded in the previous quarter.
• Total revenue generated by the postal and courier sector increased by 34.9% to record ZWL1.5
billion in the second quarter of 2022 from ZWL1.1 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2022;
operating costs increased by 43% to record ZWL1.28 billion from ZWL895.3 million recorded in
the first quarter of 2022.