IN an attempt to make life better across African continent, mobile telephony has contributed a lot to the growth of the Africa’s most potential resources. Africa is a continent where opportunities are endless and economic development has no limit.
A prime example of Africa’s promising and positive economic potential lies in the telecommunications sector. International business giants are realizing this as they invest heavily into the vast continent.
Latest statistics shows that Africa has the fastest annual average growth rate in mobile subscription in the world at 65 percent when compared with the Europe’s average of 33 and 35 percent respectively.
According to the study conducted by African Telecommunication Indicators, Africa continues to be the fastest growing telecommunication market in the world with mobile subscribers on the continent have increased by over 1000 per cent between 1998 and 2008.
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According to the largest Telecommunications Company in Africa, “The Celtel International”, this is a relatively impressive record and the development implications are therefore immense. African success story has been achieved through hard work and commitment.
Despite of the fact that African telecommunications market is the fastest growing in the world, but penetration levels remain low with only 6.2 per cent cellular penetration against the world average of 22 per cent and the market remains both fragmented and challenging preferably due economic hardships.
However, a closer look at this revolution when examined from rural perspectives, shows that most of the growth has been in the cities. Overall national figures for Tele-density and the number of phones per 100 people hide the fact that there is just but one telephone per every 200 people in most rural areas in Africa.
Nearly a decade after the liberalization of the telecommunication industry in Africa, the promise of delivering the last mile of connectivity has remained unfulfilled for the rural communities and the poor in Africa, with most handsets still retailing at over US$ 50 are too expensive for rural communities and providing fixed line connections is too costly for governments.
Some Analysts believe that mobiles can replace fixed lines for they are more appropriate for providing services to rural areas because of lower infrastructure costs and easier delivery. Though the current cost of using cellular phones is still prohibitive, enthusiastic of technology argue that the cost of a new technologies will eventually come down. And meet rural needs.
International Development Agencies also argue that market deregulation and competition will help bring down costs and subsequently close the glaring communication gap between rural and urban communities. Currently most providers tend to concentrate on urban markets shying away from rural areas while arguing that they are not profitable enough.
These factors highlight the importance of mobile phones in shaping Africa’s communication revolution. Yet for the over 24 million people waiting for fixed line connections, cellular phones have clearly not been a substitute.
The entry of mobile communications as a new media facility in Tanzania came into being in early 1990s. This wireless technology has brought significant changes in the telecommunication sector as well as in the country’s economy since then.
Having to come to terms with realities of the information revolution, the Tanzanian market and by extension, the African continent is steadily embracing this new technology that has really had an impact in the way people communicate and conduct business.
In order to guide the nation in ICT development, a number of policies in the communication sector were put in place such as the Information and Broadcasting Policy of 1992 led to the enactment of the broadcasting policy of 1992 which limited broadcasters individually to cover 25 percent of the country.
The National Telecommunication Policy liberalized mobile and value phones and value added services except for fixed line services which the government granted exclusive right to the incumbent operator, Tanzania Telecommunication Company Ltd (TTCL).
Tanzania has four mobile phone operators from the mainland and one from the Isles, in all these companies there is a total of over ten million subscribers countrywide. The number accounts for almost 25 percent of the country’s total population.
Tigo company Ltd (Formally Mobitel Co. Ltd) being the first to be licensed in the country in 1991, has relatively the lowest customer base of not more than 1.5 million subscribers and it’s followed by TTCL mobile phone, a subsidiary company of a sole fixed line telephone company in the country which came into the market in early 2007.
Vodacom having been licensed in 1999 had increased its customer base from 50,000 in 2000 to currently 4 million subscribers by December 2007. Celtel (T) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary company of TTCL was licensed in July 2001. Its customer base has increased from 40,500 customers in 2002 to currently 3.7 million in December 2007.
Zantel which operates in Tanzania’s Isles was licensed since 1997 has increased its customer base from 6,000 in 2001 to currently 200,000. It has covered all regions of Unguja and Pemba islands alone and some parts of the coastal regions of the mainland Tanzania.
Celtel was the late entrant to the market and its rapid growth has been remarked in the first 2 years of its existence. The four companies operating on the mainland have covered all the regional and districts headquarters in the country.
With a total number of telephone connections in the country, the National Telecommunication Policy had anticipated a Tele-density of 6 telephones per 100 people by 2010. The Tele-density by December 2004 was 5 telephones per 100 people.
However, the Tanzania’s Public Switched telephone Network (PSTN) a hybrid backbone network using fibre optic microwave and satellite based links is now over 95 percent digital which paves the way for allowing the provision of new services enabled by ICT.
With the reforms in the telecom sector taking place in the country was increasing, some industry watchers say that the increase of mobile phones in the last 10 years, has shown that the number of subscribers would easily reach fifteen million people by 2010.
The reforms has been streamlined as a result of the merging of the two communication regulatory bodies to form the newly active regulatory body, the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA). The merger was facilitated by the enactment of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Commissions Authority Act.
The new body known by its acronym TCRA became operational in November 2003 after having taken over the functions of the former Tanzania Communication Commission and the Tanzania Broadcasting Commission.
According to TCRA’s Director General Professor John Nkoma, the projection is pegged on a number of reasons but notably the majority of Tanzanian citizens had opted for mobile phone service compared to landlines.
He says, while the number of customer base is increasing in mobile phones, TTCL has also installed an intelligent network platform to facilitate pre-paid calling system which effectively started to operate in the country three years ago.
A cross section of mobile phone users said handsets had many advantages over fixed lines that include cheap and convenient communication by using SMS system. The multiplication of mobile phone providers in the telecommunications sector has forced a drop in tariffs by about 70 percent.
The reason for the increased use of mobile phones also include the low quality and unreliability of fixed line services. Most likely the rates might drop by between seven and 10 percent in the coming one to two years because of competition.
In addition, the pre-paid mode of payment under this aspect for example means that many customers who would not otherwise be granted access to a phone if their credit status were checked first are able to get connected.
Tanzania’s mobile phone subscribers continue to grow each day. The country appreciated cellular service way before the two other east African countries, eg Kenya and Uganda.
Looking at the three East African countries’ level of adoption, Kenya leads the pack with more cellular phone subscribers followed by Tanzania. In Uganda, the number of mobile users are still low compared to other EA states.
Kenya’s cellular phone operation has been over 1,000 fold owing to the vibrancy of the giant company the Safaricom which according to observers it’s still controlling the lucrative market in the region.
The Safaricom which in 2004 celebrated its fifth year anniversary, notably leads the competitive market with over an estimated 5 million subscribers. It is the leading in the East African region followed by the Vodacom cellular company in Tanzania.
A combination of different media and the World Trade Organization (WTO) telecommunication agreements are two major forces behind the revolution of the info-communications industry in the continent.
African government providers often are inefficient and hampered by expensive infrastructure with outdated technologies have lost their monopolies in the new and changed competitive environment.
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