04 · Connectivity
Connectivity and power in Harare, by the numbers
What the regulator's own figures say about fixed and mobile internet, how fast Starlink changed the market, where 5G is, and what the grid did between 2024 and 2026. Then: what that means when you deploy software here.
Two internets
Zimbabwe's fixed subscribers use roughly 130 times more data per month than mobile subscribers. Harare has most of both.
| Measure | Value | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active mobile subscriptions | 15,677,094 | Q4 2024 | TechNews / POTRAZ |
| Mobile penetration | 102.26% | Q4 2024 | same |
| Active internet/data subscriptions | 12,493,098 (81.49%) | Q4 2024 | same |
| Fibre subscriptions | 79,416 | Q4 2024 | same |
| Fixed LTE subscriptions | 102,105 | Q4 2024 | same |
| Fixed internet subscriptions (all) | 252,407 | Q2 2025 | Techzim / POTRAZ |
| Average fixed usage per subscription | ≈490 GB/month | Q2 2025 | same |
| Active mobile data subscriptions | 11.3 million | Q2 2025 | same |
| Average mobile usage per subscription | ≈3.8 GB/month | Q2 2025 | same |
| Fixed vs mobile traffic | 372.4 PB vs 130.1 PB | Q2 2025 | same |
Starlink, quarter by quarter
Licensed on 6 September 2024 for US$575,000; the largest ISP by subscribers within six quarters.
| Quarter | Subscriptions | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2024 | 3,814 | — | Space in Africa |
| Q4 2024 | 23,410 | +513.8% | same |
| Q1 2025 | 30,907 | +32.0% | same |
| Q3 2025 | 50,949 | — | Space in Africa |
| Q4 2025 | 67,057 | +31.7% | same |
By Q2 2025 Starlink's roughly 40,000 users were already generating 83.9 PB — about a quarter of all fixed traffic, or ≈680 GB per user per month. Its Mini plan lists at just over US$30 a month and the Standard residential plan just over US$50, against family fibre packages that started at US$150–200 before September 2024 and now start around US$90.
Sources: Techzim (licence); CleanTechnica (pricing, Q1 2026 crossover).
The maths for a Harare office is worked through in Starlink versus fibre: the Harare connectivity maths.
5G, fibre and the data centre
5G is an Econet story, and a Harare story
In the quarter to 31 May 2025 Econet held 72.29% of mobile subscribers, 80.89% of data traffic and 91.30% of the country's 5G base stations, adding 100 5G sites in that quarter alone. POTRAZ counted 120 5G base stations nationally at Q4 2024 (+48% in a quarter). Econet's own coverage announcements name the Harare CBD, Avondale, RGM International Airport, Zindoga Shopping Centre and the Harare Hospital area.
Sources: Equity Axis; TechNews; The Herald.
Fibre and colocation
Liquid launched Zimbabwe's first fibre-to-the-home and its group's Africa Data Centres lists a Harare facility among five on the continent — the only carrier-neutral colocation option we can source in the city. TelOne (state-owned) is the other national fibre operator. For an AI workload that must stay in-country, Harare colocation plus a cloud region abroad is the realistic architecture; a public cloud region inside Zimbabwe does not exist as of this writing.
Source: liquid.tech; Liquid history.
Power: 2024 to 2026
From 18-hour cuts to a promise of none.
| When | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2023 | Hwange Units 7 and 8 (2 × 300 MW) operational, financed by a US$1.2bn China Eximbank loan. | Wikipedia |
| Jan 2025 | Lake Kariba 3% full (13% a year earlier); Kariba South output 185 MW of 1,050 MW installed; cuts from ~4am to 10pm. World Bank estimate: shortages cost ~6% of GDP a year. Supply mix: coal 42%, hydro 35%, IPPs 3%, imports 20%. | Context |
| May 2026 | ZESA CEO Cletus Nyachowe: 138 days without load shedding; US$210m Afreximbank facility; load shedding to end by December 2026, imports by 2027; ~500,000 urban houses still unelectrified. | NewZimbabwe |
| Jul 2026 | ZERA: ~94 MW of net-metered private solar connected; 117 MW of utility-scale IPPs operating; ZERA and ZimStat to survey how much demand private solar now meets. | Pindula |
Harare businesses have already priced in the 2024–25 experience: rooftop solar and inverters are ordinary fixtures in Borrowdale offices and Msasa warehouses. The design question is no longer "will the power go?" but "what should keep working when it does?" — answered in Load-shedding-proof automation.
Six design rules that follow
- Logic in the cloud, channel on the phone. The customer is on a 3.8 GB/month mobile plan; your office has 490 GB. Put heavy work on your side of that gap.
- Two links, two technologies. Fibre where it exists, Starlink as failover (or primary in un-fibred suburbs). Never two links from the same trench.
- Assume on-site kit is optional. Anything that must keep running through an outage should not need a desktop, a server cupboard or the router being up.
- WhatsApp is the front door. Build the first version of any customer-facing automation on the channel people already pay bundles for. (Why.)
- Keep the data-residency question explicit. If policy says "in-country", Harare colocation exists; a domestic public-cloud region does not. Decide before you build.
- Measure the 5G footprint before promising video. Coverage is dense in the CBD, Avondale and at the airport and thinner elsewhere; design for 4G as the baseline.
Apply these per business type in the Harare Business Automation Index.