Tanzania adds five more mobile licences to reach 12

Tanzania’s telecoms regulator has granted a further five mobile licences to now make a total of 12 mobile operators in the east African nation. The companies to receive the new licences from the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) are MyCell, Egotel, Rural Netco, Smile and ExcellentCom.

The country currently has a penetration rate of 43 per cent with around 17.1 million mobile users, allowing ample room to absorb the new entrants.

The existing seven operators are Vodacom, Zain, Millicom (Tigo), Zantel, Benson Informatics, Sasatel and TTCL Mobile. South African-owned Vodacom leads the market with a market share of 39 per cent with almost 6.9 million subscribers as of December 2009, followed by Zain with 4.9 million and Tigo with 4.2 million.