Cellcos in Zimbabwe were forced to make drastic cuts in capital expenditures during 2018 due to the country’s ongoing financial crisis.
A report from Newsday, which cites figures presented to parliament by telecoms regulator POTRAZ, says that the three active mobile network operators (MNOs) – Econet Wireless, NetOne and Telecel – spent USD59.5 million last year, down from USD100.9 million in 2017.
Operating costs increased 23.1% from USD657.4 million in 2017 to USD809.0 million a year later. The trio of MNOs deployed just 75 new base stations between them in 2018, the report adds.
All three operators recently hiked data and call tariffs, though the regulator says that prices for communications services in the country are still reasonable when factoring in the cost of delivering service.
