Zimbabwe’s largest mobile operator Econet Wireless has grown in terms of subscriber numbers and even revenues, but the firm says its voice segment is slowing down dramatically.

Econet Wireless, which is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, on Tuesday announced a jump in subscriber numbers, which surged 22% to 8.5 million in the half year period at the end of August.

Meanwhile, the company says its revenue base increased 11% to $376.6 million during the same period while it invested $85.4 million on its network during the same period.

However, Econet chief executive officer Douglas Mboweni has admitted that the company's traditional revenue driver, voice, is slowing down in terms of growth.

As a result, he said the company is set to focus increasingly on its respective mobile money and farming insurance products: EcoCash and EcoFarmer.

"There is slowed growth in revenue coming from voice. We are now seeing less and less spending on voice," Mboweni said on Tuesday.

Analysts have said increasing competition from Econet's rivals, Telecel and NetOne, has put pressure on the company's capacity to boost revenues from voice telephony services.

Furthermore, there has been an increase in the uptake of cheaper internet based voice telephony services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other emerging instant messaging services such as WhatsApp.

Econet has subsequently shifted its focus onto data and overlay services, but Mboweni said data alone is not going to be enough to sustain the telco’s revenue generating capacity.

Despite these concerns, in the six months to the end of August, Econet’s revenues jumped by 11% to $376.6 million while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) rose 8% to $165.3 million compared to the previous contrasting period.

Roy Chimanikire, finance director at Econet, said the company’s financial results reflected a stronger financial position.