Econet Wireless CEO Douglas Mboweni
Leads in network and data infrastructure investment
ECONET Wireless Zimbabwe grew its revenue market share to 84,2 percent in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2017, up from 81,6 percent in Q3 of the same year, according to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz)’s fourth quarter Postal and Telecommunications Sector Performance Report released in Harare on Thursday.
The report by Potraz, the authority that regulates the telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe, showed that in the fourth quarter, Econet’s customer market share jumped to 53,1 percent in Q4, up from 51,7 percent in the previous quarter.
Zimbabwe’s telecommunications industry is dominated by three licenced mobile network operators – Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and State owned NetOne and Telecel Zimbabwe – whose combined total number of active subscribers grew to by 2,1 percent to 14,092,104 from 13,799,648 in the previous quarter, according to the industry report.
The report showed that the sector growth in subscriber numbers was largely driven by Econet’s growth in active customers of 4,9 percent in Q4, where NetOne grew its subscribers by 1,8 percent, and Telecel lost 8,2 percent of its active subscribers.
The report revealed that Econet’s voice traffic market share slightly eased to 78,2 percent, from 80,9 percent in the previous quarter, while Telecel`s voice market share remained unchanged at seven percent, and NetOne took on a 1,9 percent increase in share of voice traffic, going up to 14 percent in Q4 from 12,1 percent recorded in the previous quarter.
The report showed Econet maintaining its strong market leadership in mobile internet and data usage, exiting Q4 at 64,6 percent market share, while NetOne recorded a 29,2 percent market share. Telecel ended the quarter at 6,2 percent share of the internet and data usage market.
While the report showed NetOne increasing its share of total mobile data usage by 6,5 percent (with Econet and Telecel’s usage dipping by 5,5 percent and 1,1 percent respectively) the growth in usage by NetOne does not translate into growth in revenue market share.
The sector performance report showed that NetOne’s revenue market share dropped from 12,1 percent in Q3, to 10,8 percent in Q4 – possibly owing to unbilled usage from heavily discounted promotions.
On the infrastructure investment front, the report showed Econet leading in the investment of mobile base stations in which it deployed 65 base stations in Q4. In the same period Telecel deployed 31 additional base stations, while NetOne deployed a net addition of four base stations in the quarter.
Of the 100 new base stations deployed, the report shows 50 where LTE base stations and out of the 50, Econet contributed 41 of the LTE (4G) base stations.
The report showed that by ratio, Econet’s 3G mobile data infrastructure investment now sits at 57 percent, compared to NetOne’s 28 percent and Telecel’s 15 percent. It also reveals that Econet is way ahead in LTE infrastructure investment, with the mobile operator now sitting on 68 percent market share of LTE base stations. NetOne has 31 percent while Telecel trails on one percent.
The report further showed that Econet’s popular mobile money service, EcoCash, grew its market share to 97,2 percent in Q4, up from 96,7 percent in Q3 of 2017.
The growth was at the expense of rival mobile money services which both lost market share, with NetOne’s rebranded and relaunched OneMoney declining from 1,3 percent to 1,1 percent, while Telecel’s TeleCash went down from two percent to 1,7 percent.
The Potraz report revealed that the total number of active mobile money agents in the sector grew from 22 604 in Q3 to 27 284 in Q4, driven by Ecocash, which grew its active agent network base by 31 percent, from 20 039 in Q3 to 26 247 in Q4 of 2017.
During the same period, Telecash’s active agent network declined by 20,1 percent, going down from 1,107 in Q3 to 884 in Q4. Meanwhile, OneMoney grew by 20,2 percent, from 1 458 active agents in Q3, to 1 753 in Q4.
