19th annual research workshop mobile phones and micro and small enterprises (mse) performance and transformation in dodoma, tanzania by Dr. V. Venkatakrishnan

Ranking of technological barriers for using mobile phones

Network failure related problems seem to be the highly ranked problem as 93.3% respondents considered that as the most important technological barrier is using the mobile phones for the business purposes. Limited interconnectivity (or it could be related with the high tariff for off-net calls) was considered as the next major problem as it was ranked as the second most important problem by 76% of the respondents. Potential to lose the password was cited as the third ranked problem by 46.7% of the respondents. Poor quality handsets (30.7%), recurrent short supply of electricity, limited applications of the ordinary mobile phones and the potential to lost the password (21.3% each) were ranked as the fourth most important technological barriers in making use of the mobile phones for the business purposes.

Table 11: Technological barriers in using mobile phones for business transformation

Rank	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Not applicable
Poor quality handsets	-	3(4)	16 (21.3)	23(30.7)	9(12)	15(20)	1(1.3)	4(5.3)
Frequent network problems	70 (93.3)	2(2.7)	-	-	-	-	-	-
Limited interconnection	2(2.7)	57(76)	9(12)	-	2(2.7)	2(2.7)	-	-
Recurrent electricity shortage	-	1(1.3)	5(6.7)	16(21.3)	25(33.3)	16(21.3)	-	9(12)
Limited applications of mobile phones	-	-	5(6.7)	16(21.3)	6(8)	8(10.7)	2(2.7)	20(26.7)
Potential to lose Password	-	7(9.3)	35(46.7)	16(21.3)	6(8)	8(10.7)	-	-
Others	-	-	-	-	-	1(1.3)	-	71(94.7)

Source: Field Survey (2014)

Cost of using mobile phone services

The respondents were also queried about the cost of using mobile phone services. Many of them indicated that their overall expenditure on using mobile phone services was increasing. They also cited the reasons such as (a) frequent network problems while communicating (62.7%) (b) increased frequency of use (61.3%), (c) increased tariff (61.3%), (d) high interconnectivity tariff between different mobile phone operators (60%) and (e) repeated need to change the faulty handsets (40%) as shown by the percentage of respondents indicated in the parentheses. Despite all these problems, a considerable amount of respondents (62.7%) claimed that their usage of mobile phones was increasing over a period of time whereas 28% of them stated that it was reducing and 9.3 indicated that it was stagnant. The respondents were also requested to rank technological problems faced by them in using mobile phones for their business purposes. These are shown in the Table 12.

SECTION VII: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary and conclusion

The years 2008, 2009 and 2011 witnessed substantial growth in mobile phones in Tanzania. Nevertheless, since 2011 the growth has not been significant compared to the previous years and the mobile phones sector has almost stagnated and reached a plateau in post-2011. The years 2008 (32%), 2009 (43%), 2010 (50%) and 2011 (59%) have witnessed significant milestones in the Teledensity and telecommunications history of Tanzania. The Teledensity has reached 61% in 2013.

The national traffic of on-net calls (calls made within the same service provider) has almost trebled in Oct-Dec 2013 compared to April-June 2010. On the other hand, the traffic of off-net calls (calls made from one service provider to another service provider) has been stagnant for a long period till March 2013 though since the quarter of April-June 2013, there has been a slow but steady growth in the off-net voice calls. The numbers of voice minutes and short-messages (SMS) per user have been showing a mixed trend from April 2010 to April 2012 though since July-Sep 2012, there is an increasing trend in these indicators per user.
The second and third positioned mobile service providers such as Airtel and Tigo which were pegging their tariff for on-net calls much lower than the market leader Vodacom for a long period aligned with it since Jan-March 2013. The weighted and average tariff difference between these three leading operators has remained very marginal till today since then. The tariff for off-net calls in case of almost all the service providers seems to be much higher than the on-net calls and hence most of the operators are operating like silos with very limited interconnectivity. The tariff barriers for calls originating from one service provider to another service provider are likely to prevent the subscribers from contacting the subscribers of the other service provider.
The period April-Sep 2010 observed a relatively high Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) which declined during the period Oct 2010-Sep 2011. Again, it kept on increasing from Oct 2011 and reached a very high of about Tshs 34,000/- in Oct-Dec 2013 except the period April-June 2012. This very high ARPU could be explained as the result of increased usage of minutes per user and growth in the short messages (SMS) and also the resurgent high on-net and off-net call charges by the major telecom operators since Jan 2013.
The MSEs surveyed at Dodoma during March 2014 have been using mobile phones for various business purposes. Compared to the other ICTs such as landlines, fax machines, emails, internet, smart mobile phones etc, their use of ordinary mobile phones for the business purposes seem to be much higher and this high usage of mobile phones have transformed the way in which they are conducting their business operations. The smart phones usage is also not significant but relatively better than others.
Most of the respondents have started to use the phones/mobile phones in the recent years; 36 (48%) started using them during the period 2006-2010 and 22 (29.3%) started using them during 2011-2013. Owing multiple mobile phones and SIM cards from multiple service providers is widely prevalent among the MSEs surveyed for this study.
Vodacom, Tigo and Airtel were the leading service providers in case of mobile phones (mentioned in the order of usage). The usage of mobile phones is generally considered to be increasing despite the perceived higher tariff for the off-net calls and increasing cost of using mobile services. For reasons related to the high off-net tariffs and consequent limited interconnectivity between the mobile service providers, most of the respondents of the study have been using more than three mobile phones and SIM cards from different mobile service providers.
Voice calls, SMS services and mobile-money transfer were the three most important mobile based services used by the respondents in that order. Considering the micro nature of most of the enterprises surveyed, accessing internet, emails, social networks and other mobile based services were under very limited use.
With regard to the outgoing calls, the suppliers, customers and transporters (in that order) were receiving 6-10 voice calls per day from the respondents of the MSEs. In case of incoming calls that were received from the business contacts. Again suppliers, customers and transporters were the ones who were making calls to the MSE respondents. Placing order and making payment for the supplies were the most important purposes of using mobile phones with regard to the suppliers. Similarly with regard to the customers, informing the customers about the availability of goods and receiving payment for the supply of goods were cited as the most important purposes of mobile phones. However, contacting the suppliers seems to be more prevalent than contacting the customers. The use of mobile phones seems to have reduced the cost of travel, the frequency of travel and facilitated the early arrival of goods needed by the MSEs.
Increased number of customers, enlarged business operations, better access to market information, improved contact with the suppliers and superior customer services were cited as the major benefits of mobile phones for the growth of the businesses. With regard to market development, obtaining information about the new products, contacting the potential new customers, finding out new markets, higher access to market information and expanding to new markets were cited as the benefits (listed in the order of importance).
Network failure related problems, limited interconnectivity (or it could be related with the high tariff for off-net calls), potential to lose the password, poor quality handsets, recurrent short supply of electricity and limited applications of the ordinary mobile phones were indicated as the important technological barriers in making use of the mobile phones for the business purposes. Many of the respondents were also not familiar with the features of the smart phones and hence not accessing emails, internet or social networks for the business purposes through the mobile phones.