Tanzania Telecom Penetration Fall to 78% in 2017

The latest Quarterly Communications Statistics Report by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) for the period October-December 2017 shows that total Voice Telecom Subscriptions reached 40,080,954 at the end of 2017.

This corresponds to a telecom services penetration of 78%, compared to 80% reached in 2016 with 40,173,783 users, and indicates a negative net addition of -82,829 users.

In 2017, 39,953,860 (99.6%) were mobile network subscriptions while 127,094 (0.4%) were on fixed network.

Mobile network subscriptions decreased by -90,326 units (-0.2%) in 2017 compared to 40,044,186 at the end of 2016.

Fixed network subscriptions, provided mostly by TTCL, and in a very small percentage by Zantel, decreased by -2,503 units (-1.9%) in 2017.

The same year, Vodacom remains the largest mobile operator in Tanzania with 12,866,059 subscriptions and 32.2% market share.

It is follwoed by Tigo (11,062,852 – 27.6%), Airtel (10,855,955 – 27.1%), Halotel (3,799,691 – 9.5%), Zantel (935,161 – 2.3%), TTCL (429,735 – 1.0%), and Smart (131,501 – 0.3%).

Vodacom, Airtel, Halotel, and TTCL saw their subscriptions increase between 2016 and 2017 by +3.5%, +3.8%, +10.5%, and +46.4% respectively.

However, Tigo, Zantel, and Smart saw their subscriptions shrink by -5.2%, -13.8%, and -83.6%.