Key points from Potraz report on 2022 2nd Quarter Sector trends

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), Director General Dr. Gift Machengete has released key trends observed in the Postal and Telecommunication sectors during the second quarter of 2022

Here are a few highlights

• Mobile, Internet/data and fixed telephone subscriptions
  • 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. Hence, 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, 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 also declined by 3.5% to reach 9,293,560, from 9,644,271 in the first quarter of 2022. Thus, the Internet penetration rate declined by 1.6% to reach 61.3% from 62.9%.
• Increase in Internet & data usage
  • 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.
  • Fixed telephone voice traffic declined by 9% to record 83.7 million minutes in the second quarter of 2022, from 92 million minutes recorded in the first quarter of 2022.
• Decline in postal and courier volumes
  • 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.
• Growth in revenue and rising operating costs across all markets
  • 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.
  • Operating costs by the mobile network operators grew by an even greater margin of 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 an even bigger margin of 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.
  • Operating costs by 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.

The report also says inflationary operating environment, unavailability of credit, shortage of foreign currency, prolonged load shedding were amongst other challenges the sector is facing.

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