Telecommunications in Zimbabwe

Communications in Zimbabwe refers to the communication services available in Zimbabwe.

Background

Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) was established by the Postal and Telecommunications Act in 2000 and started its operations in March 2001. This legislation brought about a new institutional framework for telecommunications in Zimbabwe.

Telephone system

The phone system was once one of the best in Africa, but now suffers from poor maintenance; more than 100,000 outstanding requests for connection despite an equally large number of installed but unused main lines.

Main lines in use: 356,000 (2011)

Domestic: consists of microwave radio relay links, open-wire lines, radiotelephone communication stations, fixed wireless local loop installations, and a substantial mobile cellular network; Internet connection is available in Harare and planned for all major towns and for some of the smaller ones.

International: country code - 263; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat; two international digital gateway exchanges (in Harare and Gweru) (2010)

Mobile cellular: 9.2 million (2011)

Radio

Radio broadcast stations: AM 7, FM 4 (plus 17 repeater stations), shortwave 1. Acts as the primary communication for largely rural population. 2012 saw the launch of two independent stations ZiFM and Star FM.

As of 2013, Zimbabwean authorities have required all radio owners to obtain a "listening licence" from the state.

Television

Television broadcast stations: only two state-controlled stations ZBC and Channel 2, as government has shut down and refuses to issue licenses to domestic independent broadcasters such as JoyTV in 2002. However satellite TV providers are available, in 2013 Zimbabwe so the introduction of its first pay TV.

Market Structure Mobile

There are three mobile operators that users use and they are Econet, Net One, and Telecel. The current subscriber base in June 2011 to these three mobile operators were 5,521,000 people for Econet, 1,297,000 for Net One, and 1,349,000 for Telecel. All of these operators are 100 percent digitalized and offer 2G, GPRS, EDGE, and 3G services.

Internet

Main article: Internet in Zimbabwe

Internet hosts: 30,615 (2012)

In 2009, there were 1.423 million internet users. In June 2004 Mugabe asked ISPs to monitor all email traffic passing through their systems for "anti-national activities". ISPs protest that this is an impossible task.

Country code (Top level domain): .zw

See also

• Media of Zimbabwe

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.

External links

• 'Media and Telecommunication Lansdcape in Zimbabwe', a 'infoasaid' guide, September 2011, 76 pp.