MIRINDIMO

Tanzanians spent a whopping TSh555 billion ($396 million) on phone calls and text messages in three months, according to a new report by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority. The money was spent between July and September last year.


According to the TCRA report, the amount was spent by about 20,771,487 subscribers who were, by September 2010, receiving services from seven telecommunications firms, including Vodacom, Airtel, Tigo, Zantel, TTCL, Sasatel and Benson Informatics.
The subscribers’ expenditure covered both voice communications as well as short message services (SMSs).

The amount is slightly higher than the total government revenue for September 2010, which stood at TSh502.5 billion. In the preceding quarter, Tanzanian phone users spent Sh37.475 billion less, indicating that telephone number registration and tariff battles did not have a negative impact to firms’ revenue as previously thought.
By NATION CORRESPONDENT-Kenya.