Mobile phone tariff wars are expected to rekindle as the latest entrant in the market starts operations next January. Armed with a Sh300 billion ($200 million) capital investment the much awaited Excellentcom (T) Limited, trading as Hits Tanzania, is expected to give the existing operators a run for their money at the benefit of the consumers who would see the increasing competition cut down airtime tariffs.

Already competition has forced major networks to cut prices to up to Sh1 per second for all pre-paid intra-network voice communications. And Hits chairman Mr Abdullah Mwinyi said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the operator will have to come up with innovative tariff ranges to beat other players.

"We will definitely start with market tariff ranges and we would see, later, if there will be any need to lower further our tariffs," he said. He noted that the company's operations were at an advanced stage.

"Our operations are at an advanced stage... we plan to invest about $200 million in the next ten years," he told The Citizen shortly after revealing the company's brand and logo.

Hits Tanzania was awarded licenses for national network facilities, national network services and national application services from the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) in September 2007.

And in June 2008, the firm signed a $180 million (Sh216 billion) contract with Huawei Technologies of China.

Under the pact, Huawei Technologies was required to build Excellentcom's network to enable it to cover the whole country within 13 months. It did not however beat the deadline.

And Mr Mwinyi yesterday attributed the firm's failure to beat the deadline for its 2008 rollout programme to the global financial-cum-economic crisis.

"Our plans were well orchestrated... we had very good intentions but they were blocked by the advent of the global economic crisis," he said.

With the effects of the financial crisis reaching Africa in the last quarter of 2008, the company started to face funding problems.

Its plans to roll out a mobile network in the country stalled, but managed to rollout out just an estimated 10 per cent of the intended network.

"It should however not be translated to mean that we have been idle...we have injected some $50 million into the country's telecom sector since we started operations,' said Mr Mwinyi.

Hits Tanzania is a subsidiary of Hits Africa, the African telecoms investment arm of the Kuwait-based Hits Telecom Holding KSC.

Should the company succeed in its rolling out plans, it will be eighth firm to enter Tanzania's mobile/wireless telecoms market. It will compete with Vodacom Tanzania, Zain Tanzania (which will soon be rebranded to Bharti Airtel), Tigo, Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited, Zantel, Sasatel and Benson Informatics (BOL).

However, the number of operators is nothing to bother Hits as the company says it will capitalize on creativity of its management team to thrash competition.

"We will aim at developing new and ground-breaking products....our aim will be to make sure that our clients are able to understand that mobile communication is more than just calling and receiving phone calls," the firm's chief executive officer, Mr David Charles told The Citizen.

While carefully selecting his words to prevent revealing his company's strategic plans and help competitors, Mr Charles told The Citizen that his company will always strive to bring services that are currently lacking in the market.

Optimistic of the Tanzanian market, Mr Charles brushed aside a feeling that the market has more than enough operators. This, he said, is because TCRA statistics put mobile communication penetration rate at 40 per cent.

The BMI (British Market Index) report for the second quarter of 2010 projects that mobile penetration rate in Tanzania is expected to reach over 60 per cent in 2012 means that the market is still vast for the new player.

"This means that we have another 20 per cent to share with existing operators in the next two years...the market is just still huge for us," he said.

Hits promises to arrive with a completely new model whereby it will focus much on synergies and partnerships with existing operators.

"There are a number of network infrastructures in place that encourage synergies and strategic partnership...clearly, there has never been a better time for Hits Tanzania to rollout its network than now," He said.

Hits Africa also has mobile network licenses for Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia.

So far, it has managed to successfully rollout its services in Equatorial Guinea.

Mr Mwinyi distanced Hits Tanzania from Hits Uganda. Hits Uganda won the license for Uganda's fifth telephone company in 2007. However, it failed to beat its deadlines until it was sold to France Telecom and only hit Ugandan market as Orange Uganda.

"Initially, there was a close relationship between Hits Uganda and Hits Tanzania but then there erupted some shareholding problems that forced the shareholders to party ways and those that came to Tanzania remained as Hits," he explained.