Telecommunications in Tanzania

Communications in Tanzania have in the past often been very unreliable. The mobile telephone services are usually available only in urban areas, although there are currently efforts to provide nationwide mobile phone coverage.^[1] Competition in Tanzania's telecommunication sector is expected to get stiffer after the country's regulatory authority licensed four more cellular phone service providers to bring the number to ten.^[2]

Mobile Phone Companies

• Zain Tanzania
• MIC Tanzania Limited (tiGO)
• Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited
• Vodacom Tanzania
• Benson Informatics Limited
• Zantel

Internet Services Providers(ISPs)

Internet services have been available since 1996 however there is no current fiber connectivity available to the Internet backbone, thus the connectivity is over Satellite network to the rest of the world, even to the neighbouring countries. It is expected that EASSY fiber project will bring in Internet connectivity to Tanzania at lower latency and lower cost. Some of the Internet Service Providers are;

• Africa Online Tanzania [1]
• Afsat Communications Tanzania Limited [2]
• Arusha Node Marie [3]
• Benson Online [4]
• Cats-Net [5]
• Kicheko [6]
• Raha [7]
• Spicenet [8]
• Tansat [9]
• TTCL[10]
• University Computing Centre [11]
• ZanLink [12]
• Juasun.net - rural based ISP [13]

The complete list of the ISPs can be accessed from Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority(TCRA) website [14]

Data Operators

• Afsat Communications Tanzania Limited [15]
• SatCom Networks Africa Limited
• DATEL [16]
• Six Telecoms Company Limited [17]
• Tansat [18]
• TTCL [19]
• SimbaNet [20]
• Spicenet [21]

The complete list of Data operators can be accessed from Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority(TCRA) website [22]

In 2005, mainland Tanzania (i.e. not Zanzibar) modified its licensing system for electronic communications, modelling it on the approach successfully pioneered in Malaysia in the late 1990s where traditional 'vertical' licences (right to operate a telecoms OR broadcasting network, and right to provide services on that network) are replaced by 'horizontal' licences (right to operate a telecoms AND broadcasting network, but a separate licence required to provide services on that network). This reform was the first of its kind on the African continent actually put into practice, and allows investors to concentrate on their area of expertise (i.e. network operation or service provision) across a maximum number of previously separate sectors (i.e. telecommunications, broadcasting, Internet). This reform should, amongst other things, facilitate the arrival of telephony services over cable television networks, television services over telecommunications networks, and Internet services over all types of networks. In short, Tanzania is the first African country to adapt its regulatory environment to the phenomenon of convergence.

See also

• Tanzania Internet eXchange
• List of terrestrial fibre optic cable projects in Africa

References

Further reading

• Suhail Sheriff (July 2007). Rural Access: Options and Challenges for Connectivity and Energy in Tanzania. Sharing With Other People Network (SWOPnet)/International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). pp. 40. http://www.iicd.org/files/Rural-Connectivity-Tz-2007-Suhail-Sheriff.pdf.
• Suhail Sheriff (March 2007). Rural connectivity in Tanzania: Options and challenges. International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). pp. 16. http://www.iicd.org/files/Rural-Connectivity-Tz-2006.pdf.

External links

• Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority
• Zanzibar Telecom Ltd (ZANTEL)