Zain Tanzania Forecasts More Subscribers But No Growth In Sales

Zain's Tanzanian mobile venture expects full-year turnover to be flat for 2009 on the back of a cut in consumer spending caused by the wider economic slowdown, although it also reports it hopes to continue to see strong gains in terms of subscribers for the rest of the year.

The unit's managing director Khaled Muhtadi told Reuters he expected customer numbers to keep growing but anticipates 'flat revenue growth' in 2009. 'We see 5.2 million customers by the end of this year, up from 4.8 million currently, and aim to reach six million at the end of next year,' Muhtadi said in an interview.

'Revenue ... was USD328 million for 2008. We don't expect much growth in 2009. The revenue has been rather flat and a lot slower than expected because of the world economic situation,' he added.

Muhtadi went on to say his company has invested USD500 million in its Tanzanian network infrastructure over the past five years. And as part of a new consortium with rival operators Simbanet, Tigo and Zantel, he said Zain was ready to pump a further USD100 million to lay a joint fibre infrastructure throughout the country. 

'We're saying either allow us to put down that backbone or allow us to lease it from the government, but up to now there's no visibility on this and we're not being given the right to lay our own national backbone: this is the bottleneck we're seeing,' Muhtadi said.

Aperto Networks Wins SimbaNET Deal in Tanzania

Aperto Networks has announced that SimbaNET, a pan-African service provider, has selected its PacketMAX platform for new WiMAX deployments in Tanzania. The deployment in Tanzania will be the largest WiMAX network in that country.

SimbaNET is deploying PacketMAX 5000 base stations and PacketMAX 100 subscriber units in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania, before expanding to other regions. The network will operate in the 3.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands and will initially provide high-speed wireless data and voice to corporate and SME customers. Support will also be expanded later for residential and small commercial use.

“We have worked with Aperto in the past and highly value the quality of its WiMAX solutions," said Suhail Sheriff, General Manager of SimbaNET. "We are upgrading older networks to WiMAX and need carrier-grade performance if we are to meet the growing demand for broadband wireless services in Tanzania, Kenya, and elsewhere.”

According to a recent report by Business Monitor International (2007), WiMAX subscriber numbers in Africa will grow from 180,000 in 2008 to 11 million by 2012 and will account for 15% of the wireless broadband market. Furthermore, roll out of all wireless mobile technology will result in coverage for over 50% of the continent's population.