VODACOM
Tanzania embarked on an expansion drive by opening a fifth branch in Dar es
Salaam, a move that will take the mobile phone operator closer to its potential
customers and enable it serve its subscribers efficiently.
The new shop, situated along Haile Selassie Road,
seeks to reduce congestion in the already existing shops -- Mlimani City Mall,
Ohio Street, RDK Victoria and Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road.
Vodacom Tanzania Managing Director Rene Meza said some of the
services to be offered at the shop include Internet activation, device sales
and set up and configuration, M-Pesa and after sales support.
"We are excited to open this shop for we have
created employment to new staff," Mr Meza said, adding that so far,
Vodacom has given direct employment to over 500 individuals and over 30,000
individuals, indirectly. He was opening the new customers' care outlet along
Haile Selassie Road in Dar es Salaam.
The firm, with 12.3 million subscribers by end of June, remains
optimistic that the new shop would address the needs of its swelling number of
customers in the city.
"We have invested heavily on our network in order to ensure
that our customers have access to high quality, up to date network technology
and superior voice, SMS and data services," said Mr Meza. By July 2000,
Vodacom Tanzania completed its state of the art GSM infrastructure and went
live in August 2000.
Within the first four months of operations 50,000 subscribers were
connected. The country's total teledensity stands at 28 million, with Vodacom
controlling almost half of the market share.
It is followed by Airtel with 7.5million, Tigo 5.6 million and
Zantel 2.4 million, according to Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority
(TRCA). Other three providers -- TTCL, Benson Informatics and Sasatel.
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