Harare - Mobile operators are experiencing a decrease in active voice subscriptions as data and internet services gains upper hand according to the data released by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) for the first quarter of 2018.

The decrease in voice traffic has consequently contributed to a decrease in revenue by 5,8 percent to $244 677 944 in the period under review from $259 711 601 recorded the same period last year.

However, data and internet services contributed more to total fixed revenue than voice services.

"The contribution of internet and data revenues increased by 3.7 percent in line with the growing consumption of internet and data services. The contribution of voice declined by 2.6 percent in line with the decline in voice traffic," said POTRAZ.

Total fixed voice traffic decreased by 15.5 percent to record 105 million minutes in the first quarter of 2018 from 124 million minutes recorded in the last quarter of 2017.

POTRAZ director general Gift Machengete said that voice traffic continues to go down owing to a increase in data and internet based services.

"Mobile operators revenue has gone down by 5,8 percent. This decrease is due to mobile voice traffic which continues to go down. Used international bandwidth capacity has increased by 17 percent that is quite a big increase and it is because of the increase of internet.

Total fixed voice traffic has gone down by 15.5 percent as you are aware there is a shift to data centric over the top (OTTs) moving away from fixed voice traffic and that explains that decline," he said.

POTRAZ also reported that mobile penetration rate decreased by 18.1 percent to reach 84.6 percent in the first quarter of 2018 from 102.7 percent recorded in the last quarter of 2017 following a 16.8 percent decrease in active mobile subscriptions.

On the other hand, the active internet penetration rate increased by 1.3 percent to reach 52.1 percent in the first quarter of 2018 from 50.8 percent recorded in the last quarter of 2017 following a 3.6 percent increase in active internet subscriptions.

The trend towards data and internet services has been projected to continue growing and contribute significantly to revenue uptake.

"The exponential growth trend in data consumption is expected to continue unabated," said POTRAZ.

"This will be largely driven by the introduction of new applications and services in the market such as internet video, especially as operators are now looking at participating in the media space.

"Accordingly, the industry is likely to see the contribution of data and internet to total revenue outpacing the voice revenue contribution," said POTRAZ.

Internet based communication systems are effectively cheaper compared to fixed voice subscriptions which is a major factor in driving the shift from voice to internet-based communication.