EARLIER this year, music rang in the ears of the Tanzania Investment Centre and the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) when Tigo Tanzania announced plans to spend 120 million US Dollars this year in expanding its network coverage and improving the quality of its services.
The interim General Manager, Ms Cecile Tiano, told journalists that this year's investment represents a 20 per cent increase from 100 million US Dollars that the company spent on its network improvement in 2014.
"The increased level of investment demonstrates both our commitment to give our customers quality services that exceed their expectations and also giving more Tanzanians access to telecom services in the country," she said. The mobile industry has scaled dramatically over the last decade.
At the end of 2003, there were a little over one billion unique subscribers, meaning that just under one in six people had subscribed to a mobile service. By the end of 2013 this figure had increased to 3.4 billion unique subscribers: equivalent to just under half of the global population.
Globally there were 6.9 billion SIM connections at the end of 2013, with an average of 1.8 active SIM cards per unique subscriber.
According to the 2014 GMSA mobile economy report, cited that while subscriber and connections growth rates are now slowing in developed markets, significant untapped potential remains in developing markets. These are forecast to add 880 million unique subscribers by 2020.
In developed markets, there is an accelerating technology shift underway in the global connection base, with an increasing proportion of connections now on higher speed 3G and 4G networks (globally this proportion is set to rise from a third at the end of 2013 to two thirds by 2020).
The number of commercially available LTE networks is forecast to increase to more than 500 in 128 countries across the world over the next four years, going from covering around a fifth of the global population today to around half by 2017.
Ms Tiano described 2014 as a successful year and said that Tigo achieved a record 30 per growth in its subscriber base last year with the number of customers rising from seven to nine million.
Millicom Group earlier this month reported that it would see continued strong growth in 2015 fourth-quarter core profit in line with expectations.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation including corporate costs were 588 million US Dollars against 500 million US Dollars a year ago and a forecast of 584 million US Dollars. Reported revenues rose to 1.86 billion US Dollars versus an expected 1.84 billion US Dollars and expected core profit to rise to between 2.2 billion US Dollars and 2.35 billion US Dollars in 2015.
She said that they would continue expanding and maintaining the quality of their network coverage by rolling their 843 new sites country wide and that some will be 3G and are considering introducing new technologies including 4G.
As per the company's pledge, mid this week they launched a new site at Magubike village in Iringa region opening up the area to new social and economic opportunities.
The new site is part of 843 sites planned to be built countrywide by the company this year of which, 348 or 41 per cent will be in the southern regions of Iringa, Ruvuma, Njombe, Mbeya and Rukwa, according to Tigo Interim General Manager Cecile Tiano.
The site at Magubike is built in partnership with the government through the Universal Communication Services Access Fund (UCSAF) program, a program which aims to foster social and economic development in rural and urban areas through ICT intervention by ensuring the availability of communication services in rural and urban undeserved areas.
Unveiling the new site Iringa Regional Commissioner Amina Masenza, welcomed the company's investment saying it will help to unlock social and economic potentials in the region.
Ms Masenza said: "I would like to take this opportunity to confirm to investors in the communication sector, that the government will continue to partner with them and other development stakeholders by providing enabling business environments for the sole purpose of improving the communication sector in the country."
Also present at the launch was the Tigo Interim General Manager, who said the company has been investing an average of US dollars 2 million a week in network expansion and service quality improvement countrywide over the past two years in the quest to promote digital lifestyle.
Explaining the importance of telecommunication services to the area residents, the general manager cited Tigo Kilimo, as one of the services that they would enjoy.
The service gives farmers useful information on commodity prices, weather forecast and availability of inputs through their phones. One can also benefit economically by becoming a Tigo Pesa agent.
She said Tigo also plans to increase its customer service outlets in the five regions, create more job opportunities to the youth by recruiting them as freelancers while providing funding and other forms of support to community development initiatives through its corporate responsibility programme.
Recently Tigo Tanzania's coverage extended to Moshi, a milestone in that it meant that the telecommunications company now has a presence in every part of the country. From Ruvuma to Kigoma, Pemba to Mtwara, Tigo has an extensive coverage in all the 26 regions of Tanzania.
Over the past two years, Tigo has been investing US $ 100 million a year equivalent to US$ 2 million a week on network expansion and quality improvement. During this period, over 1,400 new towers have been built making Tigo the fastest growing network in Tanzania.
Besides offering stable General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) which supports a wide range of bandwidths, is an efficient use of limited bandwidth and is particularly suited for sending and receiving small bursts of data, such as e-mail and web browsing, as well as large volumes of data.
Tigo Tanzania already has 3G coverage in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Tanga, Dodoma, Moshi, Mwanza, Arusha and Namanga and there are plans to introduce 4G. 4G short for fourth generation, 4G is an ITU specification that is currently being developed for broadband mobile capabilities.
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