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Tanzania: Tax hurdles hamper mobile penetration rates [Pan African News Agency](Pan African News Agency Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - While mobile penetration rates in Tanzania are expected to rise over the next five years, this expansion will be hampered by the greater tax burden placed on mobile phone users in the East African country over the past year, Pyramid Research (PR) said Wednesday in its Tanzania Country Intelligence Report. The report, 'Tanzania: Immense Growth Potential beyond Taxation Hurdles', offers an incisive profile of the country's converged telecommunications, media and technology sectors based on proprietary data from PR's research in the local market. According to PR, the Tanzanian telecom market generated an estimated US$1.3 billion in service revenue in 2013, 14.3 percent more than in 2012. "Mobile data was the main driver behind this increase, generating US$132 million more revenue in 2013 than in 2012," the firm said. " Pyramid Research expects to see overall service revenue grow at a healthy pace throughout the 2013-2018 period." Besides mobile data services, broadband Internet services are expected to grow significantly over the next five years, their share of revenue increasing from 0.4 percent in 2013 to 1.2 percent in 2018. "As the regulator begins to cut mobile termination rates, we expect revenue generated from voice services - mobile and fixed - to fall from 71 percent of total revenue in 2013 to 61 percent in 2018." Although competition in the Tanzanian telecom market has continued to increase over the past five years, the top two operators, Vodacom and Tigo, which both primarily provide mobile services, still accounted for 70.1 percent of the country's telecom service revenue in 2013 PR's report also provides detailed competitive analysis of both the fixed and mobile sectors, tracks the market shares of technologies and services, and monitors the introduction and spread of new technologies. Published annually, this executive study provides a comprehensive view of the Tanzanian communications market by analysing key trends, evaluating near-term opportunities and assessing upcoming risks factors. -0- PANA AR/VAO 23April2014 (c) 2014 PANAPRESS. All rights reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company |