TelOne’s revenues decline to $59 million in first half of 2016, operator intensifies cost cutting measures

Nigel Gambanga Avatar
ZImbabean internet Services, TelOne Zimbabwe, Fibre Connectivity in Africa,

TelOne, Zimbabwe’s state-owned fixed telecoms service provider recorded revenues of $59 million during the first six months of 2016, which was a decline from the $69.2 million recorded over the same period of 2015.

According to the Source, the operator’s first-half earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came to $7m, which was a 2% increase from the same period last year.

Like several other industries in Zimbabwe, local telecoms has been under a lot of strain due to the challenging macro-environment.

Additional pressure has been placed on all the operators by the increasing popularity of over the top (OTT) services like WhatsApp that negate the need to use traditional communication services like voice calling which has traditionally been the major revenue driver for operators.

In the first quarter of 2016 TelOne recorded a decline in voice traffic and active subscriptions with a drop in quarterly voice revenues from $35.341 million to $30.67 million.

To deal with macroeconomic challenges TelOne has been carrying out a major cost reduction exercise which has involved wage reductions of 15% and requests for discounts of up to 20% from suppliers.

2 comments

  1. rjcdube

    I am really not surprised. Someone thought it was a good idea to send letters of demand to prepaid customers that are under no obligation to keep subscribing. If that is a signal to marketing strategy the decline makes sense to me…

  2. kkkkk

    well telone has a big issue. you cut off a phone line which was reported dead in 2005 and somehow keep charging at what point do you fix that issue that indlatws your revenue unrealistically. plus remember that if you fail to recover the debts which you will of a large chunk that’s an instant write off meaning that the little 40 that someone was paying a month equates to more. just a word to the wise cz ive news to sheriff auctions and damn you recover nothing from that situation.

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