Tigo Tanzania has won the Highly Commended Award under the Best Network Improvement category, awarded by global mobile association – GSMA during the continent’s prestigious and largest annual communications Congress & Exhibition, Africa Com, held recently in Cape Town, SA.
Tigo was short listed under the Best Network Improvement Category as the sole mobile operator in Africa in the category.
Commenting on the award, Tigo Tanzania’s Head of Operations, Mr. Deon Geyser, said that having won in this category is not only an honor for Tigo Tanzania but also a demonstration of its continuous commitment towards quality improvement in mobile services and solutions in the country.
“We have invested heavily in the past year in network quality so that we make our services more accessible and reliable to our valuable customers. Tigo is now available everywhere in the country and at a better quality, therefore this award is a great celebration towards this achievement.” he said.
According to Mr. Geyser, Tigo’s improvement on network quality is a result of the management teams’ turnaround strategy which started implementation in December 2012 across all Tigo operations. “This strategy has led to incredible results such as a 70% reduction in network outage time, 63% reduction in call drops and 300% increase in data throughput.”
“Tigo has equally invested in coverage by reaching out to more rural areas and customers across all 30 regions in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. This nationwide presence allows our customers to enjoy calls with better voice enhancement, use data with better 3G internet connectivity and have more reliable Tigo Pesa services where now they can send and receive money with less inconveniences, thus giving them another big reason to smile,” further stated Mr. Geysor.
Tigo Tanzania’s Head of Planning and Optimization, Mrs. Halima Idd, further explained that the company successfully managed an extremely focused Quality Transformation Program and invested money and other resources into the right areas.
“During our surveys we got a lot of feedback from our customers that our network quality needed improvement, this for us meant urgent measures must be taken. We are a customer centric company and that is in the core of our operations where we develop products and services around key findings from consumer understanding and feedback,” Mrs. Idd explained.
She continued, “The Quality Transformation Program that we started implementing in 2012 included; right investments into network resilience, coverage and capacity; controlled changes and project execution; as well as improved operational management. However, all this was complimented by a great team effort internally, a robust organizational structure and key strategic partnerships to achieve the results that were required.”
In September, Tigo kicked off an activation caravan dubbed ‘Tigo Smile tour’ to celebrate the widespread network coverage and reach in rural Tanzania due to launch of more than 280 quality towers in all 30 regions this year.
This massive network investment by Tigo has also given rise to employment growth as a result of the introduction of new customer care centres and Tigo shops across the country; an increase of Tigo Pesa agents, a critical factor to implement the nation’s efforts towards financial inclusion; and accessibility of Tigo products and services everywhere in the country due to widening of distribution channels thus cementing Tigo’s nationwide presence.