Tigo Tanzania announces free WhatsApp messaging service

Tigo Tanzania has announced free WhatsApp services for its 10 million users hence making it the first telecom in the country to offer the social media service for free.

The General Manager Tigo, Diego Gutierrez said all Tigo customers subscribing to the company’s weekly and monthly internet will henceforth be entitled to free WhatsApp service.

“From now onwards, all Tigo customers buying any of our weekly or monthly packages will be eligible to enjoy FREE WhatsApp. This of course, is for customers with data enabled devices. We want to encourage our non-smartphone user customers to acquire highly discounted smartphones sold in Tigo shops to be able to enjoy this new offer,” Gutierrez said.

The General Manager further clarified that the service will be available on iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Nokia Symbian60-phones.

With an excess of 1 billion users globally, WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messaging application that enables users to exchange media, texts, video clips and voice calls.

WhatsApp is a sister application to Facebook, the social network that Tigo partnered with in 2014 to become the first telecom in Tanzania to give its customers free Facebook access in Kiswahili, the country’s national language also widely spoken in east, central and southern African countries.

Tigo is the biggest commercial brand of Millicom, an international company developing the digital lifestyle in 12 countries with commercial operations in Africa and Latin America and corporate offices in Europe and the USA.