The Growth of Tanzanian Mobile Phone Sector: Triumph of Quantity, Failure of Quality?

Tanzania's mobile communications market has enjoyed impressive growth in terms of numbers of operators and subscri bers over the past few years. Currently there are six operating companies and over 10 million voice subscribers. It is expected that the number of subs cribers will keep on increasing in this decade. However, the question is : Has the increase in the number of operators and subscribers resulted in imp roved customer services and quality? This presentation reports from a preli minary study—which used both analytical research and empirical data from in terviews with operators— to find an answer to this question. The analytical and archival research provided operational statistics concerning telecomm unication. The interviews focused on five main thematic areas: the use of mob ile phones, future use of mobile phones, customer care, mobile phone rates an d customers' rights awareness. The results from this preliminary study show that the rapid development of the Tanzanian telecommunication market has not yet resulted in improved customer services and quality.