Tanzania now has nearly 40m cell phone subscribers

 The number of mobile phone subscribers in the country rose by 25 per cent in 2015 to hit the 39.8 million mark, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority has disclosed. 

At the same time, the number of local Internet users rose 52 per cent to 17.26 million last year from 2014, the state-run TCRA said in a statement yesterday.

Communications is the fastest-growing sector in Tanzania, which has a total population of over 47 million.

Like elsewhere in Africa, mobile phone use has surged in the country over the past decade, helped by the launch of cheaper smartphones.

In 2005, Tanzania had just 2.96 million mobile phone subscribers and 1.01 million Internet users, according to TCRA.

Mobile phone operators in the country include Vodacom Tanzania, a unit of South Africa’s Vodacom, along with Bharti Airtel, Tigo Tanzania (part of Sweden’s Millicom), Etisalat’s Zantel, and Halotel (which is owned by Vietnam-based telecoms operator Viettel). 

Meanwhile, the local telecom industry regulator said it has shut down a fake Facebook account and website that used the name of the First Lady, Janeth Magufuli, to con people.

“The Facebook account and website - www.focusvikoba.wapka.mobi - purportedly owned by the First Lady, was used by online con artists,” TCRA’s director general Ally Simba said in a statement.

The fraud worked by luring Tanzanians to apply for fictitious loans and tricked them into sending money as an upfront application fee.

Simba said the rapid growth of the telecommunications sector in the country has coincided with a rise in such online fraud.

“There have been several incidents of cyber crime where criminals set up websites, blogs and Facebook accounts by using the names of top government leaders, members of parliament and other prominent persons,” the TCRA boss said.

Monday 21 March 2016