According to the Potraz’s fourth quarter figures – mobile phone and fixed telephone subscribers tele-density had increased by 7,1 percent in three months.
This is said to be a significant jump and was testament to the rapid adoption of mobile phones by Zimbabweans in the past year considering that in June 2011, the country’s tele-density was 56,6 percent.
Telephone density or tele-density is the number of telephone connections for every hundred individuals living within an area.
The mobile penetration is calculated against the total population of the country, which is currently estimated at 13 million.
It varies widely across the nations and also between urban and rural areas within a country. Telephone density has significant correlation with the per capita Gross Domesti Product of the area.
It is also used as an indicator of economic development of the country or specific region.
In earlier days tele-density was computed as the number of fixed telephone lines per hundred inhabitants.
But this method has became less significant with an increasing number of countries register a trend of mobile cellular subscribers outnumbering the fixed line connections. Hence, as an alternative, mobi-density or mobile cellular subscribers per hundred inhabitants was proposed. Since this method caused disadvantage to some countries where the fixed line network is well established, or others where the mobile network is still in its initial stage of development, effective tele-density has been proposed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as the solution, which is defined as either fixed line connections or mobile subscribers per hundred inhabitants – whichever is higher.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is an agency of the United Nations (UN) whose purpose is to coordinate telecommunication operations and services throughout the world. Originally founded in 1865, as the International Telegraph Union, the ITU is the oldest existing international organization.
According to statistics, Econet Wireless, the largest telecoms company had 8 014 055 subscribers for the 4th quarter of 2012. Telecel, the second largest mobile operator had 2 582 154 subscribers while NetOne, the smallest of the three, had a total 2 017 726 subscribers.
The subscriber statistics show the total active subscribers (SIM cards) on the networks over the quarter under review.
On the fixed line side of things, where a government monopoly, TelOne rules, active subscribers continue to decrease. The operator had 325 000 active subscribers in the last quarter of 2012, down from 373 000, revealed for the previous quarter.
Post published in: Economy