Report: Number of internet users hits 23m mark in TZ

Internet penetration in Tanzania increased in the past six years,.

It reached 45 per cent in 2017 from 17 per cent in 2012, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) statistics for the fourth quarter show.

During the period, the number of internet users has been progressively growing, reaching 23 million people in 2017 from 7.52 million in 2012. The users also increased to 9.31 million (21 per cent) in 2013 and 12.27 million (29 per cent) in 2014.

The number increased to 17.62 million users (34 per cent) in 2015 to 19.86 million (40 per cent) in 2016. However, Internet World Stats says the country’s internet penetration only reached 14.5 per cent of the population as of 2016.

As more people have been using mobile phone users the number of Internet users has risen.

TCRA statistics show that the number of mobile phone users grew from 27.62 million in 2012 to 40.08 million in 2017.

Supporting the fact, statistics also indicate that Internet users who used mobile wireless were 19.01 million in 2017.

Meanwhile, fixed wireless and fixed wired recorded 3.46 million and 520,698 internet users during the year 2017 respectively.

“The number of internet users by mobile wireless service was higher than that of fixed wireless and wired devices (when the two were combined together) by 79.01 per cent in 2017,” the report shows.

As of March 31, 2011, the estimated total number of Internet users was 2.095 billion (30.2 per cent of world population).

It is estimated that in 1993 the Internet carried only 1 per cent of the information flowing through two-way telecommunication, by 2000 this figure had grown to 51 per cent, and by 2007.

more than 97 per cent of all telecommunicated information was carried over the Internet.