Internet usage on Econet Wireless grew 56% in the six months to August, and the country’s biggest tech company is speeding up infrastructure to meet rising demand.
While data usage grew by 56%, voice also saw strong growth at 36%. This time last year, data services made up 38% of Econet’s revenue, with voice calls making up 49%. Now, data accounts for 47% of revenue, beating voice at 41%. This shows that customers now use their phones for internet access more than buying airtime for voice calls.
The company is responding by spending more on infrastructure.
“Capital expenditure for the period which was largely channelled towards the modernisation of the network infrastructure amounted to 26% of revenue against a prior period comparative of 10%,” Econet reports in its latest half-year statements.
“The shift in customer needs from traditional services such as voice and SMS to data-intensive services underscores the need for the business to be innovative and to invest appropriately to ensure that customer experience is not compromised.”
Over the period, Econet deployed an additional 32 5G base stations in Harare and plans a further 120 sites.
The company says: “We expect that this aggressive rollout of next-generation data connectivity will allow us to improve user experiences and increase our ability to compete at a level of quality and capacity that is truly world class.”
Econet’s infrastructure rollout shows the resilience of its operations, as it is happening when tariffs are lagging behind rising costs. Telecoms operators have not expanded as rapidly as they could because they need significant amounts of foreign currency for equipment and upgrades.
“Network expansion and upgrades which all require foreign currency remain imperative to support business sustainability and offer competitive services,” Econet says.
