4G LTE Technology To Be Expanded In Tanzania

Telecommunication services provider Smart Telecom has recently announced that it will soon launch a brand new 4G TD-LTE (Time Division-Long Term Evolution) technology in Tanzania.

This will expand the list of LTE providers to three telecom companies with Smile Communication and Tigo already offering the service.

Smart Telecom which joined the Tanzanian telecommunication industry in 2014, will use the 2300MHz band called Band 40 that will allow its users to enjoy faster speeds when surfing on internet, downloading content, streaming videos, and making Skype phone calls.

Details about the launch date of the new technology has not been revealed yet by Smart Telecom, but its holding company, Industrial Promotion Services (IPS) which has a presence of more than 100 years in Tanzania in economic, social and cultural development projects, has pronounced that the shift from 3G to 4G is ongoing.

Currently eight companies operates in Tanzania’s telecom sector, of which two provide fixed line services and six are mobile and data providers.

According to Smart Telecom’s CEO, Mr. Abdellatif Bouziani, the Tanzanian market was not satisfied with current average high rates of TSZ 7.7 per second in phone calls inside Africa, something that allowed the company to enter the market with competitive rates at TSZ 2.8 per second and a special package of TSZ 79 per phone call including SMS and data services.

According to the World Bank 62.8% of the Tanzanian population counts with a prepaid or postpaid mobile subscription compared with an average of 71.1% in the Sub Saharan region and 96.3% in the world.

However, only 4.9% of them has access to data services compared with an average of 19.2% in the Sub Saharan region and 40.7% in the world.