Tanzania: Halotel's Cash Transfer Bit Raises Competition

Halotel Tanzania has officially launched its mobile money transfer service in a move that will likely rekindle competition among mobile phone operators in the country.

Dubbed 'Halopesa, the service is expected to give existing operators - Vodacom's M-Pesa, Tigo's Tigo Pesa, Airtel's Airtel Money and Zantel Ezypesa - a run for their money.

This is because apart from planning to register three million subscribers on its Halopesa platform by the end of next year, Halotel has already emerged to be a force to reckon with in the telecommunication sector during the past 12 months.

For instance, the company emerged as the fastest growing telecommunication operator during the first and second quarters whereby during the latter period, it garnered 571,669 Sim cards - the highest during the period - to reach a total of 1,798,348 subscribers.

It thus settled comfortably in the fifth position and slightly behind fourth-placed Zantel which had 1,858,902 subscribers, according to Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) figures.

And speaking during a ceremony to mark one year of its operations in the country, the Halotel Tanzania deputy managing director, Le Van Da said the company had 3.5 million Sim cards at the end of September, thanks to a $1 billion investment into its network infrastructure.

"We now cover all the 26 regions and the goal is to increase the number of subscribers to 7 million by the year 2017 from the current 3.5 million as we expand our network further to cover 95 per cent of the country," he said. The company also intends to introduce Fourth Generation (4G) technology

During the past 12 months, the company has paid Sh94 billion ($43 million) in taxes. It has also created a total of 25,000 temporary employment opportunities and some 1,300 direct jobs.

Halotel has built 20,000 kilometres of optic fibber and over 4,200 of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS's).

Broadband mobile services are now available in 3,000 villages, thanks to Halotel's investment.

Much more investment projects were still on the company's drawing boards.

SOURCE:THE CITIZEN