Helios own over 4,000 sites in Tanzania having acquired both Vodacom and Millicom’s portfolios in the country as well as Zantel’s mainland sites. SBA Communications and Paradigm Infrastructure operate under joint-venture firm Minara Towers after acquiring Airtel’s Tanzanian portfolio.
TowerCo of Africa is the latest towerco to join the market after parent company AXIAN Group acquired both Millicom and Zantel. Due to this, the towerco owns nearly all of the towers on the island of Zanzibar.
TOA’s growth strategy is to drive new builds as well as increase tenancies on their inherited sites and has secured a US$30mn investment from British International Investment to construct another 200 new towers, mostly in rural areas.In addition to Tigo, Vodacom, Airtel and Zantel, Halotel and TTCL are present in the market, with each of the main MNOs dominant in a different part of the country.
Tanzania - telecom market statistics Q3 2024
The government has launched a ‘Digital Tanzania’ project supported by the World Bank and in partnership with MNOs to achieve 80% broadband penetration by 2025. With a total expected cost of US$112mn implemented under the Universal Communication Services Access Fund (UCSAF), MNOs will need to deploy 758 new towers to underserved areas.
Additionally, 304 existing 2G sites will be upgraded to 3G and 4G. Airtel Tanzania has also launched commercial 5G services in specific locations assumed to be main cities including the capital Dodoma.
Halotel has been particularly aggressive in their national rollout, driving significant additional tenancies to Helios Towers. Azam Telecom became the newest MNO to be awarded an operating license and expects to start rolling out its network imminently. Smart have exited the market but retain 40 unwanted towers.
Tanzania - estimated tower ownership Q3 2024
Helios report that approximately 80% of their towers in the country are on-grid, with grid availability currently around 20 hours per day. Grid connections are continuing apace in Tanzania, materially reducing Helios Towers costs in the country.
The Tanzania Universal Service and Access Fund is financing the building of over 100 rural sites a year. Each of the three main MNOs have been in a RANsharing agreement since 2016 to improve coverage in rural areas.
Vodacom has launched the country’s first 5G network and will extend coverage to 230 locations. This comes after the Tanzanian telecom’s regulator TCRA called out market operators including Vodacom for subpar connectivity and demanded improvements be made to service quality, with another assessment due before the end of the year. The TCRA has completed its spectrum auction for US$187.5mn, with buyers including Vodacom, Airtel, Tigo and Halotel.
