National mobile on-net and off-net voice traffic in Tanzania 2018-2021

The off-net mobile voice traffic in Tanzania has continuously increased from the first quarter of 2018 to the second quarter of 2021, reaching its highest figure of 6.66 billion minutes in the second quarter of 2021. The total mobile traffic in Tanzania amounted to 21.8 billion minutes in the same quarter.

On-net and off-net connections

The terms on-net and off-net connections refer to different call or messaging types. On-net connections describe calls or messages which remain within a person’s home network, whereas off-net connections are either made from a different network or received by a number from a different network. As of June 2021, Airtel was the mobile operator with the highest share of off-net traffic in Tanzania. The Indian company is one of the leading providers of telecommunication services across Asia, and Africa.

Mobile and fixed-line telephone subscriptions: Worldwide trend

The number of mobile cellular subscriptions in Tanzania has grown from 100 thousand in 2000 to almost 48 million in 2019. This development reflects the worldwide increase in mobile subscriptions recorded since the early 1990s. As a result of the growing popularity and usage of mobile phones, the number of fixed telephone subscriptions and landline call minutes have decreased in the past decades. European countries like the United Kingdom or Germany have seen a significant drop in fixed-line call minutes. In Africa, where mobile communication had always been the more prevalent technology, fixed-telephone subscriptions only ever reached around one and a half subscription per 100 inhabitants.