FIFTH generation mobile communications technology (5G), which enables the delivery of three dimensional high-speed internet services, covers 15 per cent of the mobile phone surface area countrywide.

Dr Jabiri Bakari, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) director general, made this observation at a press conference to deliver the authority’s latest April-June quarterly statistics.

The report shows that 5G technology introduced in Tanzania in 2022 had penetrated in major suburbs of the urban population, noting that 5G coverage had reached one per cent in March. 

A total of 754 base transceiver stations (BTS) and nodes for 5G services have been deployed in various key centres, promising higher quality internet access and high-speed internet which is critical for the digital economy, he stated.  

Mobile communications technologies have emerged from the analogy first generation with voice communication to second generation mode with voice and short messages. The third generation has voice, messaging and data and basically forms the base of smart phones in general use, while the fourth generation amplifies this capacity to add large amounts of graphics to data services.

The TCRA report shows that deployment of 4G technology stood at 11,777 receptor stations, 12,366 centres for 3G facilities and 13,470 base receiver units for 2G communications, the earlier analogy phase having been scrapped.

The report affirms that 3G services coverage inched up by a percentage point to 89 per cent of the phone coverage zones during the period, as it rose from 72 to 73 per cent of the surface area, as most users are in major urban areas.

 Four G population coverage increased from 80 to 83 percent on the basis of widening geographical coverage from 64 to 69 per cent of the surface area, with internet subscriptions increasing by seven per cent from 36.8m by March to 39.3m in June 2024. 

Internet access is indicated by the number of lines, SIM cards and fixed telephone lines that have accessed and used internet services in the past three months, with the data showing that over 90 per cent of subscribers’ access internet on smartphones, tablets and modems. 

Smartphone penetration increased to 31.6 per cent by June from 30.5 per cent three months earlier, with average internet download and upload speeds improving from 11.4 MB to 12 megabytes per second for mobile broadband during the period.  

The statistics also show that businesses and individuals using the national domain name (dot tz) increased from 29,968 in March to 30,698 in June, with TCRA managing the dot tz domain name. 

It formally identifies Tanzania in cyberspace and technically proven more efficient and secure, he added.