Telecom26 provides telecom services using our MVNO network and IoT Connectivity across Africa with customers and partners in almost every country.
We have previously looked at how our IoT global SIM cards are helping with the rollout of digital healthcare programmes in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ghana and Malawi.
This week we will take a look at telecoms in Tanzania, another country in Africa where Telecom26 has a strong presence and is providing IoT connectivity to Healthcare programmes being rolled out by Big Pharma customers, Healthcare diagnostic partners and NGOs, including SystemOne.
Located on the East African coast, Tanzania has many borders: Uganda to the north, Kenya to the north east, Mozambique and Malawi to the south, Zambia to the southwest and Rwanda, Burundi, and the DRC to the west. The one thing that most people might know about Tanzania is that it is home to Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain.
With a population of almost 60 million, it has the fifth largest population in Africa, way behind Nigeria with 206 million.
According to the World Bank, “Tanzania has sustained relatively high economic growth over the last decade, averaging 6–7% a year” however poverty levels are rising. Tanzania is largely dependent on agriculture for employment, accounting for about half of the employed workforce. Gross national income per person of USD7,260 in 2019.
Telecoms in Tanzania
A recent report by BuddeComm research says that the Tanzanian government has “become more determined to manage the telecom sector more effectively” and “encouraged foreign participation to promote economic growth and social development, and policy reforms have led to the country having one of the most liberal telecom sectors in Africa”.
The country has one fixed line operator, incumbent Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation (TTC) and three main MNOs, Airtel, Tigo and Vodacom. Budde says that “mobile penetration reached 85% by early 2020, and growth in the number of subscribers remains strong”.
If you are interested in learning more about the telecom market in Tanzania then the GSMA produced an interesting study last year: Mobile Significantly Advancing Economic and Development Goals in Tanzania It highlights four key areas where Tanzania’s mobile industry is making a significant contribution to the country’s transformation into a digital economy and realisation of its development goals:
- Access to key services
- Driving productivity and efficiency
- Contribution to economic growth and social development
- Encouraging good governance
Telecom26 and IoT Connectivity in Tanzania
According to the BBC, the Tanzanian Government has not been releasing any data on infections or deaths; the president has said releasing the figures was causing unnecessary panic.
Of course, the country has been waging much longer battles against more lethal infectious diseases with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and Diarrheal diseases in the top 10 causes of death.
Several of Telecom26’s customers in Africa have rolled out TB, HIV, Ebola - and now COVID-19 - testing programmes across Tanzania.
Key to the success of the testing programmes is reliable connectivity; speed of diagnosis and treatment is often the difference between life and death.
The traditional route is to buy local SIMs to provide device connectivity. Unfortunately, this limits users to one MNO - and adds juggling multiple SIMs across devices to find the strongest local network to a long list of headaches, especially in country border areas.
Telecom26’s IoT global SIM cards and our IoT connectivity solutions were developed with the specific goal of improving connectivity in remote areas where coverage can be patchy. Our IoT global SIM cards enable devices to automatically access and switch between multiple networks both in-country and across borders thus removing the need to worry about the coverage of a single MNO, or the existence of roaming alliances. Multiple-IMSI profiles are pre-loaded on every SIM allowing for simple remote reconfiguration if the primary network has poor or no service.
If you have any questions about telecoms in Tanzania, or need help with connectivity - including IoT Connectivity - there, or in any other country in Africa or around the world then please Get In Touch.
