Tanzania drops to 113 in World digital quality of life

Tanzanian’s Digital Quality of Life Index has dropped to 113 globally dropping by six places from last year behind Kenya (76) and Uganda (107).

Overall, African countries lag behind in their digital quality of life, Tanzania is ranked in the 20th place in Africa.

 Out of the Index’s five pillars, Tanzania performed best in internet quality, claiming 95th place, while facing challenges in e-security where it was ranked  114th.

In the survey by Surfshark Tanzania ranks 101 in internet affordability, as well as e-government, and 111 in e-infrastructure.

“It’s troubling to see that Tanzania ranks so low in the DQL Index. In many nations, ‘digital quality of life’ has merged into the broader concept of overall ‘quality of life’. There’s no other way to look at it now that so many daily activities, including work, education, and leisure, are done online. That’s why it’s crucial to pinpoint the areas in which a nation’s digital quality of life thrives and where attention is needed, which is the precise purpose of the DQL Index”, says Gabriele Racaityte-Krasauske, Surfshark’s spokeswoman.

The survey shows that Tanzania’s internet quality is 20 percent lower than the global average with fixed internet averaging 22 Mbps in Tanzania.

The world’s fastest fixed internet quality is in Singapore’s with 300 Mbps. Meanwhile, the slowest fixed internet in the world is found in Yemen’s with 11 Mbps.

Mobile internet averages 25 Mbps. The fastest mobile internet is in the UAE with 310 Mbps, while Venezuela has the world’s slowest mobile internet at 10 Mbps.

Compared to Kenya, Tanzania’s mobile internet is 34 percent slower, while fixed broadband is 3 Percent faster.

Since last year, mobile internet speed in Tanzania has improved by 75 percent, while fixed broadband speed has grown by 16 percent.

The report also shows that Tanzania is ranked 114th in the world in e-security eight places lower than last year.

“The e-security pillar measures how well a country is prepared to counter cybercrime, as well as how advanced a country’s data protection laws are. In this pillar, Tanzania lags behind Kenya (65th) and Uganda (81^st),” reads the report

E-infrastructure and E-government were the other pillars that the report looked at where Tanzania  was placed at 111.

According to the report, advanced e-infrastructure makes it easy for people to use the internet for various daily activities, such as working, studying, shopping.

“This pillar evaluates how high internet penetration is in a given country, as well as its network readiness (readiness to take advantage of Information and Communication Technologies). Tanzania’s internet penetration is low (38 percent— 112th in the world), and the country ranks 103rd in network readiness.

The e-government pillar shows how advanced a government’s digital services are and the level of Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness a country demonstrates. Tanzania’s e-government is well below the global average.

Globally, the internet is more affordable than it was in 2022 with fixed internet 11 percent more affordable, on average, people have to work 42 minutes less a month to afford whereas Mobile internet is 26 percent more affordable than last in 2022—people have to work 41 minutes less to afford it.