Utande to shut down LTE and WiMAX services by January 2026

Utande is discontinuing its LTE and WiMAX services by 31 January 2026. The official explanation was polite: “changes in the licensing and regulatory framework on spectrum usage fees.”

It sounded like the usual corporate language for “things got expensive.” Turns out, that’s exactly what it was.

From LTE to ‘too expensive to exist’

We talked to Utande, who clarified what’s really behind the move, and it’s all about a law most people forgot existed: Statutory Instrument 12 of 2021, the Postal and Telecommunications (Licensing, Registration and Certification) Regulations.

That regulation introduced a new way of licensing, the Unified Telecommunications Licence. It allows an operator to offer multiple services (internet access, fixed, mobile, etc.) under one licence. Sounds neat, right?

But it also came with a new, heavier cost structure.

Under the unified licence, if you want to offer anything wireless, like LTE, you now need to pay a separate Radio Frequency Spectrum Licence fee, and it’s not cheap.

The LTE bands are classified as “high-demand” frequencies, meaning they attract significantly higher annual fees.

In other words, you don’t just pay for a licence to operate, you also pay extra every year for the right to use the airwaves your signal travels on.

Why now?

SI 12 came into effect in 2021, but Utande says the cost is only hitting now because of the timing of their licence migration.
They’re moving from their old Internet Access Provider (IAP) licence to a Unified Telecommunications Licence, and that conversion led to the new spectrum fee.

Operators could use their old licences until it came time to renew.
So even though the law is from 2021, the real financial impact for companies like Utande is only being felt now.

And once they ran the numbers, the decision was simple: keeping LTE wasn’t worth it anymore.

Utande said the decision was purely economic, nothing to do with LTE being “old tech” or unreliable. They’ll now focus on fibre and satellite, and maybe explore other technologies later if “the economics make sense.”

What about customers?

Utande had stopped taking new LTE/WiMAX customers around June or July this year.

The contract they made customers agree to technically says there will be no buy-back for equipment, but the company told us they’ll use discretion for newer customers, meaning if you joined recently, there’s a chance they might buy your equipment back.

They wouldn’t say how many customers are affected, but it’s safe to assume it’s not a small number.

One user told us:

“I had just got them in July and paid almost $300 for equipment and installation fees… what a waste.”

So, yes, this one stings.

The real cost of doing business

When you look at the bigger picture, this story is about more than just LTE.

It’s another reminder that Zimbabwe is not as “open for business” as it claims.

Licence fees, taxes, and regulatory costs continue to push companies into tough corners.

An IAP deciding to drop a whole service line is a symptom of how hard it is to stay viable in this environment.

We don’t have the exact new spectrum rates (although we hear they may have doubled since 2023), but we can see their effect clearly: a local company forced to drop a service it’s been offering for years, not because the market rejected it, but because regulation made it unaffordable.

Looking ahead

Utande will now focus on fibre and enterprise satellite (including Starlink) services.

But the bigger question remains: if LTE is now too expensive for an established player like Utande, what chance do smaller ISPs have?

At a time when we should be expanding access to affordable internet, the business environment seems to be doing the opposite, making it harder and more expensive to connect.