Business
Vodacom Tanzania added 4 million users in 2011
Meza said just a third of the 42 million people in east Africa’s second largest economy were connected to mobile phones.
Vodacom Tanzania’s parent company, Vodacom, a unit of Britain’s Vodafone, reported a 12 percent jump in earnings in the third-quarter on February 8, buoyed partly by its mobile data, expected to have huge growth potential in Africa.
Communications is the fastest-growing sector in Tanzania, accounting for 20 percent of gross domestic product. Other major players in Tanzania’s mobile phone industry are Bharti Airtel, Millicom’s subsidiary Tigo Tanzania and Zantel.
Meza said inflation and exchange rate fluctuations were pushing up costs. He said the company paid its frequency fees to the mobile sector regulator in U.S. dollars while it charged users in shillings.
Tanzania’s year-on-year inflation rate eased marginally to 19.7 percent in January, but is expected to remain in double digits in the coming months due to high food and fuel prices.
Meza said he does not expect further reduction of mobile phone tariffs in the country after a fierce price war in the past few years stifled new investments in the sector.
“We have reached a level where we feel comfortable as mobile operators with the level of prices we have, to continue investing and injecting capital in the industry,” he said.
