Zimbabwe’s Telecom Sector Sees Robust Growth, Econet Dominates
Zimbabwe’s telecommunications landscape continues its upward trajectory, with the third quarter of 2025 revealing sustained growth across key metrics, including customer subscriptions, data traffic, and voice calls. Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has once again solidified its position as the market leader, demonstrating significant strength in all these areas.
The latest sector performance report highlights a dynamic market where demand for digital services is not only meeting but potentially exceeding infrastructure capabilities, signaling a profound shift towards data-intensive consumption.
Subscriber Growth and Market Share
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe experienced a notable increase in its active subscriber base, growing by 2.39% to reach 12,064,749 subscribers. This represents an increase from the 11,782,975 subscribers recorded in the preceding quarter.
In contrast, NetOne saw its subscriber numbers rise by a more modest 1.90%, bringing its total to 4,062,894. Telecel, however, faced a decline, with its active subscriber base shrinking by 4.54% to 305,042.
Cumulatively, the total number of active mobile subscriptions across the sector rose by 2.13%, reaching 16,432,685. This growth has led to an increase in mobile penetration, from 102.64% to an impressive 104.83%, indicating that the number of active SIM cards now exceeds the country’s population.
Dominance in Voice Traffic
Econet’s leadership extends strongly into voice traffic, where it commanded an 86.69% share during the quarter. NetOne followed with a 13.29% share, while Telecel held a minimal 0.02% share of the voice market.
Overall voice traffic saw a significant surge of 10.3%, totaling 4.65 billion minutes. This substantial growth was primarily fueled by increases in both on-net traffic (calls within the same network) and interconnect traffic (calls between different networks), which rose by 8.63% and 24.65%, respectively.
Surging Internet and Data Consumption
The demand for internet and mobile data services has witnessed explosive growth, with traffic surging by 10.72%. The total volume of data traffic increased from 130.14 petabytes to 144.09 petabytes in the third quarter.
Econet further strengthened its position in the data market, increasing its share to 82.29%. NetOne’s data market share saw a slight decrease to 17.55%, while Telecel’s share remained unchanged at 0.16%.
The report elaborates on this trend:
* “During the quarter under review, all mobile operators recorded Internet and data traffic growth of more than 10%.”
* “The robust figures indicate a strong and potentially accelerating shift towards more data-intensive service consumption.”
This surge in data usage is a global phenomenon, and Zimbabwe is no exception. The report attributes this growth to several factors:
* Increased adoption and usage of data-intensive applications.
* Ongoing rollout of high-speed network infrastructure.
* A significant 26.59% increase in 5G base station deployments during the quarter.
Financial Performance and Investment Trends
The robust growth in services has translated into a healthy financial performance for mobile network operators. Sector revenue grew by 8.35% in the third quarter of 2025, climbing from ZWG 6.71 billion to ZWG 7.27 billion.
However, this revenue growth was accompanied by a sharp increase in aggregate operating costs, which rose by 19.71%. Operating costs escalated from ZIG 3.48 billion in the second quarter to ZIG 4.16 billion in the third quarter.
In terms of investment, there was a notable reversal in capital expenditure. Total capital expenditure declined significantly by 67%, a stark contrast to the 261% increase observed in the previous quarter. Capital investment for the third quarter stood at ZiG 508.92 million, a substantial decrease from the ZiG 1.53 billion invested in the second quarter. This fluctuation in capital expenditure warrants further monitoring to understand its implications for future network development and service expansion.
