Zimbabwe’s biggest telecommunications company, Econet Wireless and state owned mobile firm, NetOne have renewed their battle for an increased share of the country’s mobile phone users.

The two firms, which are both intensively revamping their networks and capacity, have about 11 million mobile subscribers on their networks.

However, Econet, with more than 8 million network users, has the biggest market share while Telecel Zimbabwe, the third operator has 2.5 million subscribers.

The Zimbabwean telecoms regulator, the Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) last year had to order Econet to drop its promotion slashing call tariffs by as much as 60%.

Now the season for promotions is back again, with both NetOne and Econet taking up large advertising space in local newspapers announcing call promotions aimed at wooing subscribers to join their networks.

Econet is also seeking to capitalise on its high end market subscribers who use its contract lines.

The company announced on Thursday that calls made on contract lines during weekends will cost 12 cents per minute. Normal tariffs cost around 22 cents a minute.

NetOne on the other hand has introduced free weekend calls when subscribers top up with an amount no less than $5 during the week.

These promotions are expected to cultivate loyalty and increased spending power for the respective categories of the two mobile companies.

“There are growing instances of multiple sim card holders and loyalty is going to be key, this explains why Econet is seeking to revamp its contract line segment,” said Moses Moyo, an independent Zimbabwean economist.