The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has recently released the last Telecommunication Sector’s report indicating that the country has recorded a total of 1,166 million new subscribers identification module (SIM) in the first quarter of 2015.
It has raised the total number of SIM cards to 33,180,333 at the end of March 2015, a growth of 3.64% from the total recorded as of December 2014.
Among the current six operators in the country, Millicom International Cellular S.A. (MIC) which operates in the country under the brand Tigo, registered the quickest growth at a rate of 7.42% reaching the 9,264,515 voice subscribers during the period.
This growth expanded Tigo’s market share in the country to 28% up from 27% as of December 2014, placing the company as the third largest in terms of subscribers in the telecommunication sector.
On the other hand, Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) was the company with the slowest growth in the first quarter 2015 at a rate of 1.59% adding merely 152,228 subscribers but still keeping its place as the second largest in the industry with a total of 9,704,205 subscribers.
According to Reuters, Vodafone has kept its position as the largest mobile operator in Tanzania while Zantel remains as the smallest one in a sector with a potential growth of 35% to over 45 million subscribers within the next years.
Tanzania currently has a mobile penetration level of 67% which is below the Sub Saharan region’s average of 71.1% according to the World Bank.
