Data services generated N$944 million in revenue during the second quarter of 2026, making it the largest source of income for Namibia’s telecommunications sector.
The latest industry statistics from the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (Cran) show that total telecommunications revenue was N$1.9 billion between April and June.
This is an increase of 12% from the previous quarter. This brings the total cost of data consumed by Namibians in six months to N$3.5 billion.
The regulator says data continued to generate the largest share of telecommunications revenue.
At the same time, mobile data usage rose to 30.8 million gigabytes (GB), an 11% increase from the previous quarter.
Despite data remaining the biggest source of revenue, the strongest growth during the quarter came from voice services.
Voice revenue increased from N$112 million in the first quarter to N$138 million in the second quarter, a 23% increase. Cran attributed the increase mainly to a recovery in domestic voice traffic.
“In contrast, voice revenue increased significantly by 23% during the quarter, driven mainly by a 29% recovery in domestic voice revenue,” Cran says.
SMS revenue, meanwhile, remained at about N$31 million.
Although Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) and Telecom Namibia continue to hold most of the country’s active SIM cards, Paratus Telecommunications recorded the fastest growth in subscriptions during the quarter. The number of active SIM cards in Namibia increased by 2% to 2.79 million.
Cran says Paratus subscriptions grew by 11%, compared with about 2% for both MTC and Telecom Namibia.
“The faster increase of Paratus, though from a smaller subscriber base, suggests a gradual broadening of competition in the mobile market,” Cran says.
Paratus also recorded the fastest growth in data use among the three operators. Its data traffic increased by 21%, compared with 11% for MTC and 6% for Telecom Namibia. This growth comes as Namibians increasingly use mobile networks for social media, video streaming and messaging.
TikTok recorded the largest increase among the major social media platforms.
On MTC’s network, TikTok alone accounted for about 8.99 million GB of data consumption during the quarter. “TikTok remained the most-used platform, with consumption rising by 21%, the largest increase among the major platforms” Cran says.
YouTube consumption increased by 15%, while Instagram rose by 9%. WhatsApp usage increased by 5%, while Facebook recorded a more modest 1% increase.
Cran says the broad-based growth showed that social media was becoming an increasingly important part of internet usage, particularly as video-focused platforms continued to grow.
YouTube accounted for about 4.37 million GB, while WhatsApp recorded about 7.09 million GB.
