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THE tele-density in the country has increased by 3 per cent in the second quarter of this year inching close to 20 million users, thanks to low tariffs and stiff competition.
The seven mobile phone companies are further stretching their network to rural areas in the wake of favourable ICT policy. Latest statistics published by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) shows that the number of mobile phone users had increased from 17,985,919 to 19,592,795 posting a 3.0 per cent increase.
Zantel - Zanzibar Telecommunications Company - leads the pack by registering 1,888,739 subscribers in the second quarter, which is an increase of 12 per cent. Benson Informatics registered a worst quarter after seeing its customer base drop by 13 per cent to 2,406.
The new entrant, Sasatel, seems to find the going tough but managed to increase its base by one per cent in three months to 16,452 subscribers. Though TTCL mobile managed to increase its base by 0.03 per cent in three months to 252,813, with an average of 0.01 per cent per month, the rate is insignificant given the size of the firm.
The Tanzania Telecommunication Company (TTCL) Limited Public Relations Manager, Mr Amin Mbaga, says the business has no big impact on revenue as people talk little. “Voice business in today’s world is no longer a cash-cow in comparison with data,” Mr Mbaga said in an interview with the 'Sunday News'.
Mr Mbaga said TTCL investment portfolio was directed to data as companies are changing from voice to data. He said the data business is also facilitating the country’s economic growth. With the coming of the marine cable, analysts are arguing data service providers are earning between 15 US dollars and 30 US dollars compared to voice that has the return of about 7 US dollars per user per month.
Statistics also show that Vodacom continues to lead the pack by increasing its customer base by four per cent to 8,013,574, which is almost the combined figure of Zain and Tigo. The battle for customers was between Zain and Tigo, in which their base increased by two per cent and one per cent to 4,923,660 and 4,495,151 respectively.
Overall fixed line subscription dropped by 0.6 per cent to 168,531 subscribers, a trend attributed to the fall of TTCL customers base by 0.7 per cent to 153,231subscribers while Zantel increased by 2.0 per cent to15, 300 customers. TCRA Public Relations Manager, Mr Innocent Mungy, could not tell immediately the reason for slow-increase as it grew by an average of one per cent per month.
Spending on telephone per month also dropped to an average of 8,806/- from 14,507/- for both voice and SMS. But Mr Mbaga believed that the voice market has reached its “maturity level” and because of that "telecoms are sweet talking to their customers with a lot of promotion and tariff cuts.”
Tele-companies, especially Zain and Vodacom had reduced charges for mobile phone calls to other network by over 50 per cent to boost their services. The figures show that the net traffic dropped from 147,530,022 registered in the first quarter to 123,531,600 in the second quarter.
The country’s figure of 19.6 million is closing the tele-density gap with Kenya whose mobile subscription reached 19.9 million as at March, this year, while Uganda has about 10 million users.
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