The number of households using fixed telephone services in Zimbabwe has been falling over the past five years while corporates have increasingly been using the service.
This is contained in the results of the Consumer Satisfaction Survey conducted by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) between June and November 2022.
POTRAZ said a total number of 4 000 household consumers and 400 corporate consumers were engaged across the ten provinces of the country during the survey.
According to POTRAZ, consumers were asked if they had used fixed telephone services in the past 12 months to the time of the study. reads the report:
The engagement of TelOne fixed telephone was at 70% in the corporate segment, a significant jump from 53% recorded in the previous survey of 2018.
Bulawayo province ranked highest with 91% followed by Manicaland and Midlands provinces.
The household segment had engagement levels of 1%, a drop from the 2% recorded in the previous survey of 2018. Bulawayo had the highest engagement level of 12%.
In the corporate segment, Bulawayo province ranked highest with 91%, Manicaland had 88%, Gweru had 80%, Harare (73%), Matabeleland South (73%), Masvingo (68%), Mashonaland Central (60%), Matabeleland North (60%) Mashonaland West (42%), and Mashonaland East (34%).
In the household segment, Bulawayo also had the highest engagement levels of 12%, Harare had 3%, while Manicaland, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Matabeleland North, Masvingo, and Midlands had 1% each.
Mashonaland Central and Matabeleland South both had zero engagement levels in the household segment. POTRAZ said:
Looking at household consumers, the decline in usage was mostly attributed to increased penetration of mobile phones & data services which allowed consumers to communicate using voice services on the go.
Consumers in different areas also cited vandalism of fixed telephones infrastructure as present barriers to taking up the services.
Mobile phones are portable and can be carried anywhere. Also with the rise of smartphones, accessing the internet and social media is made much easier, providing easy access to information and communication tools.
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