Tanzania is often overshadowed by its East Africa neighbour Kenya; the regional darling with respect to political stability and economic development. Tanzania’s telecoms sector is helping change this perception as a converged licensing framework introduced in 2005 helps the sector grow at a rate that is enviable not just in the region, but across the continent

Tanzania has a population of over 40 million, and with a teledensity rate of just 25 per cent as of June 2008, is viewed as possessing strong growth prospects in the telecoms sector

Tanzania is a country of around 40 million inhabitants, and prior to 2005 had teledensity of below 10 per cent. According to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), by June 2008 this percentage had risen to 25 per cent, representing 10.4 million fixed and mobile telecoms users, and the growth rate has no sign of letting up.

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Regional mobile telecoms distributor and reseller i2 is reported to have shelved its plans to participate in the nascent mobile virtual network operator market in the Middle East, having failed to receive the go-ahead to launch services anywhere in the region. The company had been awarded one of two MVNO licences in Jordan, along with Friendi Mobile, but the two licensees have been unable to commercialise an agreement with any of Jordan’s mobile network operators.

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In response to the Whisper we published last issue, which quoted a source in Nigeria talking up the impact that Nigeria’s branding has had in the country since launching at the end of October 2008, another well-placed Nigerian commentator has contacted Comm. with his view of things on the ground.

This latest commentator believes competition in the Nigerian telecoms space is becoming very intense given the presence of five mobile operators and several very active fixed wireless players.

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As mobile penetration deepens in emerging markets to reach customers at the lowest socioeconomic level, the value added services (VAS) that will be attractive to this segment and how they will be used will be very different to how more affluent consumers have in the past. Working with 100 operators in 70 countries across Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and India, Bharti Telesoft’s CEO, Manoranjan ‘Mao’ Mohapatra shares with Michelle Mills his insight and experience into the challenges and special requirements in providing content to the next billion mobile customers

In India, we have about 30 per cent teledensity. As operators try to increase that towards 60 per cent, they are reaching out to a segment of the population that requires services that are not language dependent. Operators cannot assume that a user has the ability to read and write any more,” Mohapatra asserts.

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Turkey is a country that straddles the east and west, incorporating European, Asian and Middle East cultures. Often classified as belonging to the wider Middle East, it is the region’s largest single telecom markets counting over 60 million mobile subscribers. Despite this large number of users, the country only recently awarded 3G licences, with the three incumbent mobile operators expected to launch services in the middle of 2009

In November, the Telecom Authority of Turkey announced that the country’s largest mobile operator Turkcell had won the largest block of 3G spectrum or ‘A licence’ with a bid amounting to US$462 million. The reserve price for the concession had been set at US$405 million.

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