Over half of Telecel’s 4 million subscribers inactive as MNO’s Q4 revenue increases 4,7 percent

Telecel was the only operator to experience a decline in the Average Revenue per User per month; this is in line with the revenue statistics as Telecel was the only operator to register a decline in revenues.

MOBILE network operators’ revenue closed 2015 with combined revenues of $745.3 million. The latest report from Potraz shows that the fourth quarter had the highest revenue of all the quarters at $191.08 million, an increase of 4.7% from $183.16 million recorded in the previous quarter.

According to the report, which highlights performance for Q4, Econet had 70.2% of the market share in revenue at 70.02% while NetOne and Telecel contributed 18.3% and 11.5% respectively.  “A quarterly comparison shows that Econet and Telecel lost their market share by 0.7% and 0.6% while NetOne gained 1.3% from Q3,” reads the report.

Fixed telephone revenue in the quarter increased 14.2% to $35.34 million from $30.94 million following an increase in international in-coming traffic and net on net traffic. However investment declined 61.1% to $1.78 million from $4.6 million in Q3 as the sub-sector slowed in investing in the access network.

The total number of active fixed telephone lines increased by 0.5% to reach 333,702 from 332,211 recorded in the third quarter of 2015. The fixed tele-density also increased to 2.6% from 2.5% in line with the increase in fixed subscriptions.

The report says the total number of mobile subscriptions increased by 2.2% to 19,477,307 from
19,054,959 recorded in the previous quarter. Active subscriptions increased by 2.9% to
12,757,410 from 12,394,383 recorded in the previous quarter.

Econet closed the quarter with 9.23 million subscribers but 27.4% of those were inactive. Telecel had 4.53 million but 57.7% of them were inactive while NetOne at 5.7 million had 27.5% dormant subscribers. Industrywide, inactive subscribers were at 34.5% although the three all recorded increases from Q3.

NetOne registered the highest growth in active subscriptions; as result NetOne gained market share of subscribers whereas Telecel and Econet lost market share. “An annual review shows that  NetOne  has  been  steadily  gaining  market  share  over  the  past  year,  whereas  Econet  and Telecel`s market  shares  have  been  steadily  declining.”

The  increase  in  the  active  mobile  subscriptions  led  to  an  increase  in  the  mobile  penetration rate by 2.6%% to 95.4% from 92.8% recorded in the previous quarter. “Besides  growth  in  users,  the  high penetration  rate  can  also  be  attributed  to  multiple  SIM  ownership  as  people  seek  to  enjoy promotions from all the mobile operators.”

The  total  national  voice  traffic  declined  by  5.7%  to  record  1,189,942,667  minutes  from
1,262,513,445 minutes recorded in the previous quarter.  On voice market share, Econet maintained its  lead  position commanding 61.1%  whereas  Telecel  and  NetOne  had  14.3%  and  24.6%  respectively.  An annual evaluation shows that Econet has been continuously gaining voice traffic market share whereas Telecel and NetOne had periodic fluctuations

Mobile data utilisation increased by 27.4% to record 1,203,378,839MB from 944,268,192MB recorded in the previous quarter. “Since the introduction of WhatsApp and Facebook bundles by  the  mobile operators  a  lot  of  data  has  been  consumed  through  these  OTT packages as  bundles.” Of the usage, Whatsapp was at 34% and Facebook at 3%.

In terms of internet and data utilisation Econet had 79.5% market share whereas Telecel and
NetOne had 7.1% and 13.4% respectively

Telecel  was  the  only  operator  to  experience  a  decline  in  the  Average  Revenue  per  User  per month; this is in line with the revenue statistics as Telecel was the only operator to register a decline  in  revenues.

The  total  value  of  transactions  on  mobile  money  platforms  increased  by  16.3%  to  record $533,067,245 from $458,412,196 recorded  in  the  previous  quarter.  The number of mobile money subscribers also increased by 9.9 % to reach 7.3 million subscriptions from 6.7 million subscribers recorded in the previous quarter. The number of agents increased by 11.7% to reach 33,259 from 29,775  agents recorded  in  the  previous  quarter

According to the report, household subscriptions grew 2.7% while there was a decline in corporate subscriptions of 4.8%.  Household subscriptions constituted 71.3% of the total fixed subscriptions whereas corporate subscriptions made up 28.7% of total fixed network subscriptions

Active rural main lines increased 4.3%  to  record 8 ,998  from  8,629 lines recorded  in  the  previous  quarter.  On  the  other  hand  active  urban  main  lines  increased  by  0.04%  to  record 323,704 from 323,582 lines recorded in the previous quarter. A  total  of  178, 317,321 minutes  were  processed  on  the  fixed  network  in  the  quarter  under review. This represents a 4.8% increase from 170,183,284 minutes recorded in the previous quarter.

“The  increase  in  fixed  network traffic was  driven  by  a 12.7%  increase  in  net  on  net traffic.  All  categories  of  national  interconnect  traffic  between  the  fixed  network  and  the mobile  and  VoIP  operators  declined.  International incoming traffic increased by 7.9% whereas international outgoing traffic declined by 12.3%.  The increase  in  international incoming  traffic  is  expected  due  to  the  usual  peak  in  international  incoming  traffic  over festive  holidays  in  December. FinX

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