Coronavirus – Tanzania: Telecom Supports Customers Working, Learning Remotely

As Tanzania and the rest of the world is facing a challenging time with the spread of coronavirus, staying connected with Vodacom has never been more important.The Director of Vodacom business at Vodacom, Mr. Arjun Dhillon, said over the weekend that the company is positioned to support businesses, learning institutions and organisations to continue operations but also keeping people connected during these unprecedented times.Vodacom Tanzania provides critical connectivity and communications infrastructure across the country."We have invested billions improving our infrastructure in the past 20 years and in recent days we have seen how critical it is, we continue to improve our capacity and minimize congestions as more customers demand ICT infrastructure to work remotely," he said.He said innovation and technology have been placed on the forefront to bring a sense of normalcy to how people and organizations do things during these times."We are stretching every resource to the maximum to ensure that our customers stay connected, and that organisations in both the private and public sector continue to operate efficiently whilst working remotely."To help businesses and corporate clients reduce unnecessary movements, Vodacom has introduced DocuSign e-signature platform to aid the signing of various company documents electronically. This implies that Vodacom can remotely sign and approve documents for its customers without having to meet them physically."I believe this will improve efficiency in terms of time saved but also protect our customers and staff," he said.Furthermore, Vodacom has digital channels that can help customers and businesses to work from home ensuring they stay connected at all times.Vodacom App, M-Pesa App and Vodacom Business portals allow customers to do more without having to move from their homes, for example buy airtime and bundles, pay employee wages, make service, utilities and Government payments with ease but also receive payments."We recently improved the M-Pesa app to allow customers to set standing orders ensuring no payment or transfer is missed. Our business is about keeping the organizations we support connected - whether with essential mobile connectivity or through fixed data networks, cloud and hosting or internet of things," he said.The Director Corporate Affairs at Vodacom, Rosalynn Mworia, said with schools closed and still in need to keep their minds occupied, the company is offering home internet using fixed lines, Mifi of routers."In addition to zero rating critical websites for Tanzanians to access reliable information on the status of Coronavirus, we have also zero rated some learning websites that students can use to study while at home with no internet such as Instant Schools and Shule Direct. Our guarantee to our business customers is that we are doing our utmost to ensure we continue to assure you quality and reliable connectivity because we do have the capacity to ensure you are connected throughout this crisis," she noted.