Tanzania Telecoms Sector Prepares to Welcome Dovetel

The Tanzania telecoms sector is currently preparing to welcome the operations of Dovetel, a Swedish telecommunications company that is scheduled to open a branch in Tanzania by May or June of this year, thus bringing the total number of mobile phone companies in the country to seven.

Dovetel Ltd. was originally founded in 2005 by Tanzanian professor of telecommunications, Prof. Peter Chitamu, who currently teaches in South Africa.

The company currently receives all of its funding from the PME Infrastructure Fund, which owns a 65 per cent stake in the business.

A recent statement that was released by the company indicated that the company’s primary focus will be to provide internet connection and phone services in Tanzania.

“Dovetel’s focus is to provide Internet connection and fixed phone services to Tanzanian households and businesses,” read the statement, “The services will be provided by the latest wireless CDMA EVDO broadband technology, providing customers with high speed and a true value for money.”

According to a recent report by the Citizen, Dovetel currently plans to initiate its services in the country using a Kiswahili brand name in order to mirror the Tanzanian roots of the company.

Before this can be done, however, the chief marketing officer for the company, Christian Haeger, has indicated that there is still much to be done before the new name of the company and new services that can be provided become available and are launched in the country.

“There are an enormous amount of activities to be finalized before the launch of our services,” he said, “If things go according to plan, we shall be able to reveal our new name as we introduce our services by the end of May.”

In addition, it has also recently been reported by the Guardian that Dovetel has commissioned the ZTE Corporation to provide telecommunications equipments using code division access technology in order to allow its customers the use of networks that are both less expensive and easier to operate.

To this end, towers for the project would be installed in the regions of Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Zanzibar, Mwanza and Kilimanjaro.

During a seminar that was held in Dar es Salaam recently, the current manager of the ZTE Corporation, Athanas George, said that the introduction of Dovetel would help to present a new lifestyle and provide new experiences for mobile subscribers within the country in part by offering its customers more modern products and services along with a top-quality network.

Services by Dovetel will initially be made available in Dar es Salaam, where the network is currently being tested, followed by Arusha and other major cities that will be covered in the next phase of the rollout.