Zimbabwe’s Internet penetration rate has reached 55.4% in the third quarter of 2018 signalling a 3.5% increase in the number of internet users from the 51.9% recorded in the second quarter of 2018.
The continuous surge in the internet penetration rate can be mainly accredited to a massive 21% increase in mobile internet usage from 6,104Terabytes recorded in the second quarter of 2018 to record 7,395Terabytes consumed in the quarter under review.
The main driving factor in the internet revolution has been the continuous advent of cutting edge devices such as smartphones which directly contributed a 4% increase in mobile penetration rate from 88% in the second quarter of 2018 to 92 % in the third quarter of the year.
“Mobile internet and data utilisation increased by 21.1% to record 7,395TB from 6,104TB from 5,220TB recorded in the second quarter of 2018. All the mobile operators recorded growth in mobile internet and data usage. Social media continued to drive mobile data usage with WhatsApp bundles constituting 32% of total mobile data usage.” reads the Potraz report.
“Mobile network operators generated a total of $331.2 million in the third quarter of 2018. This represents a 13.1% growth in revenue from $292.9 million recorded in the second quarter of 2018.” added the Potraz report.