According to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Smart Telecoms has officially closed all its business activities in Tanzania.
Dr Emmanuel Manasseh, the acting director-general of TCRA said the Smart Telecoms had previously submitted its business closure request in March 2019. He said the network service provider wanted immediate closure in March which the TCRA refused.
The TCRA’s refusal was to give users who had bought voice, message and internet bundles a period of three months to use up their credits. The TCRA only revoked Smart license to sell new credits and other related services in March 2019. The three months period came to an end in June when Smart officially closed business in Tanzania.
Smart telecom entry in Tanzania
Smart Telecoms started its operation in Tanzania in early 2014 after acquiring Benson Informatics Limited. According to the TCRA, between June 2015 and October 2015, Smart subscriber mark increased by a total of 1,799,641 subscribers.
This increase accounted for four per cent of the market share of 38 million subscribers in that period. The numbers, however, started going down drastically, with the subscriber count reducing to 1,385, 390 subscribers in January 2016. In October 2016, the subscriber count had gone down once again to 853,990. As at March 2019 when Smart Telecoms submitted their business closure request, they had a subscriber count of just 132,404.
Smart Telecoms exit is leaving Tanzania with only six telecoms company; Vodacom, Airtel, TTCL, Tigo, Halotel and Zantel.
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