Evaluation of marketing strategies used by mobile phone companies in provision of internet services in Tanzania

The purpose of this study was to evaluate marketing strategies used by mobile phone companies in the provision of internet services in Tanzania. The study sought to examine the effectiveness of the marketing mix strategies including an evaluation of the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies; an assessment of the level of customer satisfaction with these internet services; and to identify the challenges encountered by mobile phones companies in the provision of internet to their clients. The companies studied were Vodacom, Airtel, Tigo and Zantel whereby 100 respondents who are customers of one or more of these companies, as well as 18 managers from these four companies were interviewed. Simple random sampling techniques were used to select the customers who were interviewed, while purposive sampling was used to select the managers. Customers were from 5 wards in Dar es Salaam region namely Ubungo, Msasani, Segerea, Kivukoni and Kurasini. Findings from the study indicate that customers are using multiple internet services from different service providers for various reasons such as speed, availability, coverage and costs. The main recommendations are that internet providers should improve and increase the browsing speed; pricing of the services should relate to the quality of internet service provided; ensure wide network coverage in both rural and urban areas; and different varieties of internet bundles should be introduced.