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Performance of Fixed Telephone and Mobile Network Services in Tanzania

 

Over a decade telecommunication industry in Tanzania has experienced a tremendous transformation. Improvement of science and technology has influenced the innovation of more advanced communication methods. There has been a shift from fixed telephone usage to mobile phone usage. In 2019, fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants for United Republic of Tanzania was 0.1 numbers per 100 inhabitants (WorldBank, 2019) and it reached 76,288 from 174,511 unit subscribers in 2010.


Tanzania has two fixed-line operators TTCL and Zantel and eight operational mobile networks, with four additional players licensed under a new converged regulatory regime. With four major operators Vodacom, Airtel , Tigo and Zantel mobile penetration has reached 83% by March 2017.

 

There were 47.685million mobile connections in Tanzania in 2019 according to WorldBank .The number of mobile connections in Tanzania increased by 26.7 million (+56%) within a decade  between 2010 and 2019. The number of mobile connections in Tanzania in January 2019 was equivalent to 79% of the total population. 

Mobile phone use has surged in Tanzania over the past decade, underpinned by the availability of cheaper smart phones and internet service. The number of internet users in Tanzania rose by 16 percent at the end of 2017 to 23 million  from around 19 million in 2016 , with the majority of those using their handsets to go online.. According to Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) in a report, Internet penetration in the nation of around 52 million people ticked up to 45 percent in 2017 from 40 percent a year before. Tanzania, east Africa’s Second biggest economy, had 40.08 million mobile phone subscribers last year, down slightly from 40.17 million a year earlier.

                                

Advancement of telecom has lead to introduction and spread of mobile money services. Mobile Money was first introduced in 2008. With, almost 60 million total pollution around 56% of Tanzanians used Mobile money technology in 2020. Tanzania is one of the world’s leaders in mobile money transactions. In March 2020, mobile money users made 256.96 million transactions using one of the six mobile money services.

During the first quarter of 2021, the incoming mobile voice traffic in Tanzania amounted to approximately 17.2 million minutes, while the outgoing call volume was a lot lower with around nine million minutes. The majority of the overall voice traffic was generated by international calls to or from countries outside the East Africa (EA). Outgoing voice traffic to the EA region accounted for 2.4 million minutes, whereas incoming traffic reached 4.08 million minutes.

Telecommunication firms had been earning a lot each year from international call charges. However, since introduction of Social media calls like  WhatsApp  calls became a household name, the amount that telecommunication firms earn from such calls has drastically plummeted  because people have turned to WhatsApp calls and messaging  and other similar calls to avoid international call charges.


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