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By Damas Makangale,
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Pan-African
telecoms group Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Econet Global has bought the
majority shares of Raha, Tanzania’s leading internet service provider as part
of the company’s efforts to foster development of connectivity in the region.
Owned by Zimbabwean
billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, Liquid Telecom has operating companies across the
continent in Botswana, the DRC, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda
and Zambia, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom.
Speaking to the
East African Business Week in an exclusive interview last week in Dar es Salaam,
Raha, Head of Commercial, Said Alli said that Raha will become part of Liquid
Telecom’s extensive fibre network, providing businesses across East African
region.
“The fibre network that
runs all the way from Cape Town up through Dar es Salaam and into Nairobi,
stretching over 40,000 km and connecting 12 countries,” adding that the company
is not only relying to two Tanzanian fibre optic cable system Eassy, Silcom but
also they have connected with TEAMS from United Arab Emirate,” he added
He further said
that TEAMS runs all the way from Fujairah, United Arab Emirates all the way
from Namanga to Mombasa which makes Raha to become major link of Tanzanians
source of communication and connectivity that foster business development.
“In Fact Tanzanians
they have a lot of advantage when they choose to rely on Raha as we have
various cable system as part from these local based, of course we are here to
improve internet communication to the extent that improve life to majority of
people in the region,” he noted
Alli underscored
that Tanzania is a rapidly growing and dynamic market, and through that
investment internet users in Tanzania will have more access to technology and
business, market connectivity in the dynamic market.
He said that Liquid
Telecom will provision African wide range of business as well focusing on serving
multinational companies, banking, mining and other development sectors on
communication and connectivity platform.
Raha currently
serves over 1500 businesses as well as a growing number of retail customers
with a range of connectivity solutions, including fibre, satellite, WiMAX and
Wi-Fi.
The company has
already introduced over 150 free Wi-fi hotspots across all major cities in
Tanzania, which are currently enjoyed by over 150,000 unique users.
As one of the first
companies to bring internet to Tanzania when it launched as a dial-up service
in 1996, Raha has played an important role in improving internet access across
the country.
Raha was also the
first company in Tanzania to offer dial-up access, VSAT services, fixed
wireless, cable-based internet, WiMAX and finally fibre.
It operates a 400km
metro fibre optic network throughout the Central Business District (CBD) of Dar
es Salaam as well as other areas of the Tanzania capital.
The company has
built a dynamic and innovative reputation amongst Tanzania consumers and
businesses, and in 2015 collected the prestigious Brand of the Year Award
(Africa) at the Social Media Awards Africa (SMAA).
Internet
penetration in Tanzania has increased rapidly in recent years reaching 34% in
2015. Mobile subscriptions increased by more than 24% in 2015 to 39.8 million,
while the number of internet users rose 52% year-on-year to reach 17.26 million
last year, according to Tanzania Communication Regulator Authority (TCRA).
Liquid Telecom is
the leading independent data, voice and IP provider in Eastern, Central and
Southern Africa. It supplies fibre optic, satellite and international carrier
services to Africa’s largest mobile network operators, ISPs, financial
institutions and businesses of all sizes.
Liquid Telecom has
built Africa’s largest single fibre network currently spanning over 40,000km,
including Neotel’s network, across borders and covering Africa’s
fastest-growing economies where no fixed network has existed before.
The company has
been named Best African Wholesale Carrier for the last five years at the annual
Global Carrier Awards.
Ends.
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