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) The domestic system 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 most major towns that includes Harare, Gweru Bulawayo, Mutare through fiber optic and other remote parts through satellite communication 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) Zimbabwe has 37 local radio stations.
Matabeleland South, Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central provinces do not have dedicated provincial radio stations, although the Bulawayo based Skyz Metro FM stretched its signal to reach greater parts of Matabeleland South province.
The government has shut down and refuses to issue licenses to domestic independent broadcasters such as JoyTV in 2002.
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.
In June 2004, Mugabe asked ISPs to monitor all email traffic passing through their systems for "anti-national activities".