UK-based data, voice and IP provider for Africa, Liquid Telecom, is set to expand in Tanzania through the acquisition of Raha, the country’s leading internet service provider.
Liquid Telecom recently announced that it has received the final regulatory approval to become the majority stakeholder of Raha.
The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) approved the agreement on December 8th, 2016.
Following the acquisition, Tanzania will become the latest market to be added to Liquid Telecom’s extensive fibre network, which is the largest of its kind serving eastern, central and southern Africa, spanning over 40,000km across 12 countries.
“We are very pleased to announce that this transaction has received its final approval. The agreement enables Liquid Telecom to expand its footprint into Tanzania, a growing and dynamic African country,” said Nic Rudnick, CEO of Liquid Telecom.
“We are thrilled with this approval and look forward to being part of a pan-African connectivity movement,” said Aashiq Shariff, CEO of Raha.
Raha today serves over 1500 businesses as well as a growing number of retail customers with a range of connectivity solutions, including fibre, satellite, WiMAX and Wi-Fi.
Liquid Telecom has operating companies in the UK and across Africa in Botswana, the DRC, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Liquid Telecom is currently working on a new submarine cable set to run along the East African coast and into the Red Sea.
The new fibre-optic cable will help boost internet speed and mobile communication in Tanzania.
Tanzania Internet
Internet services’ users in Tanzania reached 17.3m in 2015 (34% of total population), compared to only 5.3m (12% of total population) in 2011.
The number of mobile wireless users also increased significantly during 2011–2015, from 3.7m to 16.2m, accounting for more than 90% of the total number of internet users.
The most common broadband service in Tanzania is given through 2G connections, which offers a speed of up to 0.3 Mbps and is used by 85% of the mobile subscribers in Tanzania.
Currently (2016), 3G and 4G services with speeds of up to 8Mbps are being used by 2.53m mobile subscribers across the country.
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