Telecommunications
Structure and Policy
The public telecommunications
operator was administered by the East African Telecommunications Corporation which covered
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika). However with the collapse of the East
African Community in 1977, the Tanzania Posts and Telecommunication Corporation was
formed. In January 1994, the postal and telecommunication services were separated, leading
to the formation of a new state-owned company, Tanzania Telecommunications Company
Limited (TTCL). The latter is the sole provider of basic fixed services in the
mainland. Zanzibar Telecommunications Company Limited (Zantel) has been
licensed to provide telecom services in Zanzibar.
Tanzania has set-up in 1994 an
independent telecommunications regulatory authority, the Tanzania Communications
Commission (TCC) which is empowered to license and to oversee the operation of
all forms of communication services in the country. Its duties include radio frequency
allocation and equipment type approval.
As part of a liberalisation
programme, the government has:
- granted licenses to operate links,
private networks of value-added services and devices;
- granted licenses to qualified
private contractors to install equipment and networks at subscribers premises; and
- promoted the development of
competition in the sector.
Plans are at an advanced
stage for the government to sell some of its shares in the Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited. TTCL is already a tax paying, profit-seeking
enterprise, and has over 70% of the market share.
A five year programme
(1994/1998) worth US$ 250 million known as the Telecommunications Restructuring Programme
has already shown its impact in the country. The main objective of this programme
sponsored by IDA, ADB, SIDA, Danida, EU, Japan, and the Kuwait Fund is to raise
teledensity from 0.3 to 0.7 by 1998 and to meet the fast-rising demand for reliable
services in the urban and rural areas. Much of the improvements in Dar-es-Salaam and
improved links to many secondary towns are the outcome of the Telecommunications
Restructuring Programme. Other projects are:
- Southern Corridor
Telecommunications Project: With funds being sought from China and Japan having
shown interest, the project is expected to expand and modernise switching and transmission
in Mtwara and Lindi;
- Kagera Telecom Project:
SaskTel
International was awarded a tender by the Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) to develop a digital telephone system in the Kagera Region of Tanzania. The
value of the contract is $6.2 million Canadian to be spent over two years. For Tanzania,
the Kagera Region in particular, this project is a major improvement over existing
infrastructure. Under the two-year project, SaskTel International will build a complete
telecommunications network to serve several communities in the Kagera region. It includes
installing a digital microwave radio equipment, building towers to run telephone lines
from pole to pole, and constructing buildings to house the hardware and telecommunications
network. SaskTel International (SI) is the global arm and a wholly-owned subsidiary of
SaskTel. SaskTel International has been delivering turn-key network integration solutions,
advanced network management and interactive services to customers around the world since
1986.
- Rural Automation Project:
Funds are being sought to replace magneto telephone exchanges with automatic ones;
- WorldTel Telecommunications
Project: Funded by WorldTel, it aims at installing 300,000 telephone lines;
- The Post Office of Tanzania
is planning a large VSAT network which will link 17 towns to Dar-es-Salaam.
International Data Carriers
Following a governmental call for
tenders for international data carriers in 1996, the national regulator issued licenses to
three locally registered companies with international ownership. These licenses have a
period of 10 years (subject to review after 5 years), and were issued to the following
companies:
- SITA: The well
known airline communications co-operative;
- Datel: A joint
venture between Tanzania Telecommunications Company (49%) and Nexua International (a
subsidiary of France Telecom Group) (51%). It provides public data communications network
services based on VSAT satellite technology; and
- Wilken/Afsat: A
subsidiary of Wilken
International based in Nairobi which has traditionally supplied voice radio
communications services in East Africa. In addition to international data carrier license,
the company has also obtained a local wireless data transmission license in the 2.4GHz
waveland with which it will connect customers directly to its 12 meter international earth
station in Dar-es-Salaam with downlink in the USA.
The cost of the data licenses was
US$ 100,000 plus a royalty fee of 5% on annual turn-over. The entrance of Wilken/Afsat in
the resale market has created a competitive environment. For two years, the Internet
services market was marked by the high costs of leased lines to Datel and SITA (about US$
17,000 a month for 128 Kbps and US$ 12,000 a month for 64Kbps), but Wilken/Afsat has
entered the resale market with US$ 5,000 for 64Kbps.
Cellular (Mobile) phone
network
In January 1999, Tanzania
joined Inmarsat, the global mobile satellite organisation, becoming its newest member
country and its 15th African country. The national signatory is the Tanzanian
Telecommunications Company Ltd (TTCL). Inmarsat is an internationally owned co-operative
of 85 member countries that provides mobile satellite communications world-wide.
Established in 1979 to serve the maritime community, Inmarsat has since evolved to become
the only provider of global mobile satellite communications for distress and safety
communications, as well as communications for commercial applications at sea, in the air,
and on land. More than 125,000 Inmarsat-based mobile communications terminals are
currently in use. They serve customers from diverse markets including: merchant shipping,
fisheries, airlines and corporate jets, land transport, oil and gas, the news media and
businesses whose executives travel beyond the reach of conventional communications.
There are two cellular mobile
operators in Tanzania with over 37,900 subscribers in 1998:
MIC (Tanzania) Ltd.:
Popularly known as Mobitel, it has operated an ETACS cellular mobile network since 1994 in
Dar-es-Salam, Zanzibar, Arusha, Mwanza and will open soon in Dodoma and Tanga. The
shareholders are Millicon International Cellular SA of Luxembourg (51%), TTC (25%),
Ultimate Communications Ltd. (14%) and IFC (10%), and the company currently has over
14,600 subscribers.
Tritel (Tanzania) Ltd.:
It operates a US$ 12.5 million Siemens-based GSM cellular mobile network in Dar-es-Salaam
and Zanzibar, with possible extension to Arusha and Mwanza. It is growing at 500 a month
with a capacity of 20,000. The shareholders are TRI (Malaysia 65%) and VIP Engineering
Limited (35%).
On July 1999, the Tanzanian
Government approved an application
by South Africa's Vodacom to operate a mobile phone network. Vodacom will hold a 55
percent stake while Planetel Communication Ltd, owned by Tanzanian shareholders, will hold
a 45 percent stake. The company is registered as Vodacom Tanzania.
Cardphone network
ACG Telesystems Ltd.
has installed 180 cardphones in and around Dar-es-Salaam with plans to add 600 in 1998 in
the same area and and to extend its services to others town in Tanzania, mainly Mwanza,
Arusha, Moshi and Mbeya. The company offers also a paging service in and around
Dar-es-Salaam which is expected to grow into the rest of the country.
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ICT
Networking Development
In pursuit of the overall objective
of the African Information
Society Initiative (AISI), a Workshop on the Elaboration of an
Information and Communmications Policy and Plan for the United Republic of Tanzania
was held in Dar-es-Salaam from 12 to 15 May, 1997. The workshop was facilitated by the
Tanzanian Planning Commission and it brought together information technology experts,
senior government officials and private sector leaders. The objectives of the workshop
were:
- to secure the commitment of the
Government of Tanzania to the process of formulating a national information and
communications policy and plan;
- to set up national mechanisms to
assist in the development, coordination and implementation of the plan; and
- to develop strategies to resource
mobilization.
The participants of the workshop
urged the government of Tanzania to set-up a steering committee with a secretariat at the
Planning Commission responsible for drafting a programme of action towards the elaboration
of an information and communication policy. In this pursuit, UNECA has been requested to
assist the Government in the mobilisation of additional financial resources.
Aside from the activities of the
workshop, the development process to elaborate a national information and communication
policy and plan for Tanzania has not yet materialised.
In order to assist developing
countries in articulating their demand for ICT applications, the International Institute for Communication and
Development (IICD) facilitated National ICT Roundtables. The Roundtables
focus on the identification, development and implementation of an ICT policy and
pilot projects. A National ICT Roundtable was held in Dar-es-Salaam on June 4-10, 1998.
The Industry and Agricultre Department within the Tanzanian Chamber of Commerce (TCCIA)
organised the workshop with support from the Ministry of Transport and Communication. The
participants of the Roundtable devised the following recommendations:
- ICT policy recomendations should be
consistent with and embedded in the current legal framework to ensure continuity.
- ICT policy should address the fear
of loss of cultural heritage, threats to traditional values and the potential exclusion of
certain factions in the society.
- ICT policy should support the
necssary curricula to develop the availability of an adequate ICT skill base; and
- ICT policy should consider
identifying relevant criteria to ensure the sustainability of ICT initiatives, which
includes the maintenance of concepts and contingency planning.
The workshop effectuated five
project proposals:
- Community Telecentres:
the telecentres offer a range of tailor-made information services, on the subjects of
local government, environmental issues, education, health care and agriculture. So far a
good start has been made to create a national network connecting regional community
centres.
- ICT Awareness Project:
the project aims at enhancing awareness in the Tanzanian society about current and future
implementation of ICT in all sectors of society. The primary focus will be education.
- Indexing Geographical Based
Information: the project aims to develop an index of presently available
geographic information systems in Tanzania.
- Improvement of Communication
Between Districts: the project will strive to improve the information flow within
the government system for the purpose of enabling an authority in each district to access
information from other districts.
- Computerisation of District
Profiles: the project will establish an information point for a number of
districts in Tanzania with the main objective of provinding an up-to-date statistical
information on all relevant economic and social aspects of each district for decision
makers, investors, farmers, and others.
The Tanzania Commission for
Science and Technology (COSTECH) is responsible for national research centre and
academic networking. With initial support from the UNECA's CABECA Programme and later on
from RINAF, COSTECH has operated a dial-up e-mail service since 1993. The service connects
daily to the Internet via a call from GreenNet in London. With support from the World
bank, COSTECH has been awarded the contract to develop the official government web site.
The Council also has a large training room in which it conducts a number of computer and
networking training courses, with support from UNESCO and other donors agencies.
Open University of Tanzania and
University of Dar-es-Salaam are the Tanzanian participants in the InfoDev/World Bank African Virtual University (AVU)
project. This a US$ 1.2 million project using satellite technology to deliver distance
education with telephone call-back for voice intervention from the pupils to 25 sites.
TANZANET is a mailing list whose primary objective is to provide a forum
for information exchange among Tanzanian nationals and other interested persons through
various modes of communication including the world-wide Internet. Discussions in the forum
is open and not restricted to any particular subject or topic, but strong emphasis is
placed on issues related to the enhancement of the quality of life of Tanzanians.
There have been a number of initiatives
in the health sector such as:
- The HealthNet node at Muhimbili
University College of Health Sciences was the first e-mail provider in the country. The
installation of a new digital line has improved accessibility, and the service now
connects daily to the Internet via a call from SatelLife in Boston;
- The HeathNet Users Group Mwanza at
the National Institute of Medical Research in Mwanza operates a SatelLife LEO
groundstation e-mail linl; and
- The African Medical and Research
Foundation office at Ifakara near Lake Victoria is in the process of establishing a
SatelLife groundstation. When this has taken place, the equipment, installation, training
and support costs (US$ 17,000) are to be shared with other 5 initiatives: The
Tanzania-Netherlands Project to support AIDS control in Mwanza region (TANESA), Kuliana,
the Farming Systems Research (FSR), the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) and the
Training Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture (MATI).
There are currently 7 Internet Service Providers in
Dar-es-Salaam, and some have points of presence in secondary towns. The average
communication costs are:
| Connection
fee |
US$
100.00 |
| E-mail
only |
US$
50.00/month |
| Unlimited
web/e-mail |
US$ 75.00/month |
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ICT Partners and
Projects
Multipurpose
Community Telecentre Pilot Project
Project site: Sengerema,
Duration: 3 years. Starting date: 1999
International partners: ITU,
UNESCO/DANIDA, IDRC (and possibly CIDA)
National partners (proposed):
Tanzania Telecom Company Ltd., Ministry of Health, Ministry of Science, Technology &
Environment (COSTECH), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Peoples Communities,
local Government, Open University in Tanzania, Hospital and Health organizations in
provinces/area, Local industries and/or sales offices in Tanzania, DATEL
Status: Project Document
still to be finalized. Initial proposal received 1996. Revised draft proposal received in
1997 following joint ITU/UNESCO mission (preparatory assistance). A joint ITU/UNESCO/IDRC
mission together with representatives of potential local partners visited Tanzania to
assist in finalizing project document in September 1998.
The East Africa
Co-Operation (EAC) is planning a high-speed digital backbone linking Kampala,
Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam by 2001. The European Investment Bank financing of US$ 41
million has been arranged for the project, with another US$ 9 million being provided by
the East African Development Bank, and a further US$ 16 million contributed by the three
East African telecom operators.
The National ICT Roundtable
of Tanzania aims at deepening common understanding of the potential role of ICT
in national development processes, share by national stakeholders in the ICT market in
Tanzania. The National ICT Roundtable consists of three phases: (i) two short workshops
for formulation ICT policy priorities and for the identification of ICT demonstration and
action-research projects; (ii) ICT project formulation; and (iii) Fundraising and
Partnering. The National ICT Roundtable is led by the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce,
Industry and Agriculture. Support from International
Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) focuses on
capacity building and on capturing 'lessons learned' and 'best practices'.
The Youth Leadership
Program for Information and Communication Technologies for Community Development
seeks to prepare and deploy youths into various communities to popularise and transfer
skills on how to use ICTs for community development. Initially the project targeted four
countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nigeria. The International Development Research Center (IDRC) will take the
lead in organising a workshop to provide a forum for various African and Canadian experts
to discuss the project and the modalities of its implementation.
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