Mobile internet costs in Tanzania

Uncle Rukus · 2012-02-04T10:13:14+00:00

IntroductionThe cost of internet has been dropping dramatically in East Africa, since even before the advent of the undersea fibre-optic cables which came in 2011. There are now a lot of options for visitors and residents; this article focusses on the costs of access for mobile access via the cell networks, using handsets or USB modems. Two years ago it was unthinkable to rent a movie on iTunes (data cost $200 for a 1.2GB film, taking days) now you could do the same for $4, and even start watching it within 90 minutes.Most handsets use internet automatically these days, or require minimal setup. Using internet without subscribing to a bundle (data and time-limited pre-paid connection) is fairly pricey, typically 150-200 TSH/MB subscribe to a bundle and youll pay at least 80% less, or as much as 97% less!USB modems for your laptop are very convenient, and typically cost 25,000/- (keep an eye out for specials).Deciding on a bundle, given the 38 options from the five major cell providers, can be a bit tough many users may find that they are limited by what is available at their location. In choosing the best and cheapest option, youll need to consider: How much data are you likely to need? If youre using your handset for email and internet and Skype, youre unlikely to need more than 200MB in a month. If you watch YouTube all the time and download lots of GIS data you could easily use 1,000MB (1GB) in a day. In general, the larger the bundle you buy the cheaper the cost per unit. How long will you need it for? A day? A week? The whole year? How much are you willing to initially pay? Its convenient to get a 15,000/- package for a week, but has a hassle of needing recharging every 7 days; a 150,000 package might be valid for months but you run the risk of not using your allocation, losing the modem, or not being able to take advantage of the whole package due to service issues. Caveats: This is based on data published by Tigo, Airtel, Vodacom, TTCL and Zantel as of 06th January 2012. Things change, often without notice. There are 33 different options available for internet from four different providers listed here. However, not all providers are available everywhere and NOT ALL AREAS HAVE 3G OR EVEN EDGE SPEEDS! Test the quality of service wherever youre based. Quality of service varies a lot, to say the least. You may find constant disconnections, data corruption during big downloads, blocked access to certain services, etc. Cost of bundlesThe Important data The section after this has a table of all the bundles available, but lets look immediately at the overall picture! Heres a chart showing the cost (TSH / MB) of the various bundles on offer in January 2012.Costs per megabyte drop sharply with increasing size & cost of the bundle. As you can see, most costs per megabyte come in above 10 TSH some as high as 50! (Remember though that the standard (no bundle) rate for most networks is 150-250 TSH/MB). Tigo, TTCL and Airtel stand out as having the lowest (<10TSH/MB) bundles, across a range of bundle sizes.Depending on how you use internet, there are different solutions. Usage Suggestion Light use during a short visit (1 week); emails, some browsing. Airtels monthly Handset bundle gives you 400MB for 2,500/-. For small initial payments nothing else even comes close; the next best is Tigos Standard for 10,000/- for only 7 days validity and 1GB of data (and even then, and extra 5,000 would get you +2GB with Airtels Weekly bundle). Moderate use over a longer visit (up to 3 months), with lots of browsing and big attachments. Airtels Handset bundle gives 400MB for 2,500, valid for the month. If you find it running out quickly, use Airtels Weekly bundles, 3GB for 15,000. If you dont have huge bandwidth requirements, these are the best two options; Tigos per-MB price are 30% more expensive per MB but have 30 day validity and cost 30-100,000 per bundle. Big media (movies / GIS imagery / etc) downloads regularly > 5GB per month. Tigos Max (60 day) bundle at 4.9 TSH/MB (15,000 per week). Airtels Weekly bundles at 4.9 TSH/MB (150,000 per two months). The cost per MB is the same. With Airtel there is a the inconvenience of having to recharge your modem every week, but has wider coverage than Tigo and a much smaller investment. Further Reading Ory Okolloh has a really interesting post on why we pay the prices we do for mobile internet in Tanzania. Niels Emmer gives a how-to on connecting with Airtel. DataThe data for this post is available as a Google spreadsheet. I will attempt to keep this up-t0-date as the providers change bundles.The table following shows the 33 bundles available from the four major cellphone data providers.Bundle = name from the provider; MB = megabytes of data provided; TSH = cost of the bundle; TSH/MB = cost per megabyte of the bundle; Validity = days the bundle lasts for. Available as a Google doc here. Provider Bundle MB TSH TSH/MB Validity Airtel Daily Bundle 20 500 25 1 Airtel Handset Browsing Bundle 400 2,500 6.3 30 Airtel 1 Day bundle 300 3,000 10 1 Airtel Weekly bundle 3,072 15,000 4.9 7 Airtel Monthly bundle 8,000 70,000 8.8 30 Airtel Quarterly Bundle 24,000 200,000 8.3 90 Airtel Yearly Bundle 96,000 750,000 7.8 365 Tigo Light 200 3,000 15 1 Tigo Light 500 7,500 15 7 Tigo Standard 1,024 10,000 9.8 7 Tigo Light 2,048 28,000 13.7 30 Tigo Max 4,096 30,000 7.3 7 Tigo Standard 4,096 35,000 8.5 30 Tigo Mini Max 7,168 75,000 10.5 60 Tigo Max 15,360 100,000 6.5 30 Tigo Max 30,720 150,000 4.9 60 TTCL Daily 50 1,500 30 1 TTCL Weekly 1,024 8,000 7.8 7 TTCL Weekly 2,048 15,000 7.3 7 TTCL Monthly 500 20,000 40 30 TTCL Monthly 600 30,000 50 30 TTCL Monthly 1,024 40,000 39.1 30 TTCL Monthly 2,048 60,000 29.3 30 TTCL Monthly 4,096 90,000 22 30 Vodacom Cheka Internet 20 500 25 1 Vodacom Cheka Internet 50 2,000 40 30 Vodacom Cheka Internet 150 3,000 20 1 Vodacom Internet Bomba 750 10,000 13.3 7 Vodacom Cheka Internet 250 10,000 40 30 Vodacom Spidi Internet 1,024 15,000 14.6 7 Vodacom Internet Bomba 2,048 30,000 14.6 30 Vodacom Spidi Internet 4,608 70,000 15.2 30 Vodacom Spidi Internet 12,288 200,000 16.3 90 Vodacom Spidi Internet 49,152 750,000 15.3 365 Zantel Z-Mini 50 1,500 30 1 Zantel Z-Small 250 6,000 24 1 Zantel Z-Regular 500 8,000 16 7 Zantel Z-Mono 500 10,000 20 30 Zantel Z-Silver 2,048 40,000 19.5 30 Zantel Z-Gold 5,120 90,000 17.6 30 Zantel Z-Platinum 8,192 140,000 17.1 30 Source:Mobile internet costs in Tanzania » Tanzania Conservation Resource Centre

Thread starter Uncle Rukus
Start date Feb 4, 2012

Uncle Rukus

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