Helios to spend $100m in Tanzania

Bloomberg.

This will be in addition to the $130 million the Mauritius-based company already spent in the acquisition of 1 180 telecommunications towers from Tigo Tanzania in December.

The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority has granted Helios a licence to operate a network of towers in East Africa's second-biggest economy.

The $100 million project is a five-year investment aimed at providing higher quality service coverage including in rural communities in Tanzania, according to IT News Africa.

The telecommunications tower sharing plan would allow increased competition between telecoms operators, thus lowering costs for customers and improve environmental conditions by reducing the number of towers built.

ComputerWorld indicates that for almost three years, Helio Towers Africa had confined its operations to West African countries including Nigeria and Ghana, where the company has independently been operating a network of telecom towers that are being shared by mobile operators.

As is the case in many other countries in Africa where larger operators including MTN, Airtel and Vodacom have operations, much of the DRC and Tanzanian populations in rural areas still remain unconnected to mobile communication because of the cost involved in building towers.