Harare - Econet Zimbabwe maintained its market share and revenue lead in the telecoms industry according to Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) 2018 first quarter sector perfomance report. The first quarter sector report by Potraz which starts from January and ends in March reveal that Econet is the only mobile operator which registered a growth in active customer subscriptions by 2.2 percent from 7 488 588 in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 7 651 312 during the period under review. Econet's growth in market share and revenue is attributed to a consistent growth in the key industry performance indicators. Zimbabwe's second largest operator NetOne experienced the biggest decline in subscriptons of 43.6 percent while Telecel lost 12.4 percent of its active customer base. According to the report by the industry regulator Econet added 162 724 new customers to its subscriber base while the other two licensed operators registered a negative customer base with Netone losing 2 322 968 customers from 4 957 105 to 2 634 137 in the quarter, while Telecel lost 203 382 subscribers from 1 646 411 at the end of 2017 to 1 443 029 at the end of March 2018. Subsequently the huge decline by NetOne resulted in a 16.8 decline of mobile subscriptions in the first quarter from 14 092 104 to 11 728 478. NetOne’s subscriber decline is attributed to the challenges it faced with its Onefusion product which resulted in many subscribers abandoning their network. The decline also reflects that NetOne had a lot of dormant subscribers who did not perform any revenue generating activity in the first quarter of 2018 resulting in the state controlled cleaning up its subscribers database. Resultantly, Econet recorded a jump in customer market share from 53 percent recorded in the last quarter of 2017 to 65 percent in the first quarter of 2018 while NetOne`s customer market share declined by 12 percent and Telecel customer market share remaining at 12 percent. According to the industry regulator, Econet's market share of Internet and data traffic grew from 64.6 percent to 67.1 percent while NetOne's Internet and data market share fell from 29.2 percent to 27.8 percent. Telecel's Internet and data market share slipped from 6.2 percent to 5.1 percent. Industry expects agree data and internet revenue is now a major driver in the sector's growth because of the rise in internet and social media use as global trends show a rapid decline in voice revenues. According to the first quarter report, Econet commanded the biggest market share of mobile revenues at 84.3 percent after gaining 0.1 percent from 84.2 percent recorded from the fourth quarter of 2017. During the period NetOne increased its mobile revenue market share by 0.5 percent to 11.3 percent from 10.8 percent in the last reported quarter. Telecel is the only mobile operator whose mobile share revenue declined by 0.6 percent from 5 percent in the last quarter to 4.4 percent in first quarter of 2018. On voice traffic market share, Econet lost 4.5 percent to record 73.7 in the first quarter of 2018 from 78.2 percent recorded in the last quarter of 2017, while Telecel’s market share decreased by 2.9 percent to record 4.1 percent down 7.1 percent in the last quarter of 2017. NetOne`s market share increased by 8.1 percent in the first quarter to record 22.1 percent voice traffic market share from 14 percent in the previous quarter, attributable to discounted minutes of usage from non-billable promotions including OneFusion. The report further showed that although NetOne's OneMoney experienced the biggest leap in active money subscriptions of 49 percent, in absolute terms however Econet's Ecocash maintained market leadership after adding most customers, recording 272 605 new customers in the first quarter from 4 574 409 to 4 847 014 which is a 5.96 growth. OneMoney remained in the third place despite adding 26 028 new subscribers from 52 940 to 78 968 in the first quarter as Telecel's Telecash added a marginal 0.3 perecnt new users from 79 429 to 79 643. The report showed the overall mobile money landscape in the first quarter more or less remaining as it was in the previous quarter, with EcoCash recording 96.8 percent market share down from 97.2 percent in the previous quarter, with Telecel and NetOne tied at 1.6 percent market share apiece from 1.1 percent and 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017.