Helios Towers Africa (Mauritius) to invest USD100m in Tanzania

Mauritian telecommunications-tower builder and operator, Helios Towers Africa, a plans to invest as much as USD100m over five years in Tanzania, its chief executive officer, Charles Green has said.

This will be in addition to the USD130m the Mauritius-based company already spent in the acquisition of 1,180 telecommunications towers from Tigo Tanzania in December, Green said in a telephone interview from London yesterday.

The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority on Aug. 5 granted it a license to operate a network of towers in East Africa’s second-biggest economy, he said.

Vodacom Tanzania, a unit of Vodacom Group Limited. (VOD), is the biggest mobile-phone operator in the country, with the local unit of Bharti Airtel Lomoted (Bharti), Emirates Telecommunications Corporation’s Zantel and the Tanzania Telecommunication Company also operating in Tanzania.

Total subscribers reached 21.2 million in March, according to the regulator.

Helios has held talks with other operators about “colocating on our towers in Tanzania and could add investment to acquire or build additional sites to expand our network,” Green said.

Five institutional investors committed USD 375 million for investments by Helios in sub-Saharan African markets with USD 180 million having been spent so far, he said.