2 STATUS OF ICT IN TANZANIA
T
2.1
anzania has made remarkable progress in deploying ICT. This progress has been well
received by the citizens and service providers who are striving to address unmet demand and
competition in newly liberalised markets.
Access
2.1.1 Infrastructure
Tanzania’s tele-density is low, with the number of fixed and mobile cellular lines
currently standing at 12 telephone lines per 1000 people (i.e. a teledensity of 1.2) and the
number of mobile phone subscribers currently stands at 81 per 10,000 inhabitants. In
contrast, the City of Dar es Salaam has 5 fixed lines and 10 mobile phone subscribers per
100 people. (See Table 1)
Tanzania’s Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), using fibre optic, microwave
and satellite-based links, is now over 95% digital. This paves the way for allowing the
provision of new services enabled by ICT. The coverage of the network infrastructure is
limited to urban areas and thus lack of telecommunications and other infrastructures in
the rural areas remains a basic impediment to the provision of such new ICT services.
Tanzania has a liberalised broadcasting sector with some broadcasting operators spread
over a vast area nationally and even regionally while others cover a local geographical
area. Although at present the programme content of the television services falls short of
the sentiments expressed in the Broadcasting Services Act, 1993 and consists mainly of
imported material and sports coverage, this imbalance is being addressed by both the
regulatory authority, and the providers of those services.
2.1.2 Internet availability
The Tanzania Communications Commission (TCC) has licensed nine companies to
provide public data communication services including Internet bandwidth. These data
operators have isolated initiatives of connecting their Points-of-Presence (PoPs) to the
global Internet backbone. As a result, Tanzania lacks cheaper and high capacity
connections to the global Internet. All connections, regardless of the data service
provider, are small capacity international links that connect to the global Internet
backbone in different countries such as Norway and the United States. Therefore, the
limited international Internet bandwidth is scarce and extremely expensive. The lack of a
national Internet Exchange Point (IXP) also means that much of Tanzania’s local traffic
is routed via international routes.
There are presently sixteen licensed ISPs in Tanzania providing between 10,000 and
15,000 dial-up accounts in the country with many more users via Company and
Government LANS and Internet cafés. Available e-readiness studies suggest that there is
a large unsatisfied demand in the country for Internet access.
2.1.3 Hardware and software
There is no local manufacture of ICT equipment in Tanzania; all local dealers or agents
import these products. There are no standards guiding the imports of both hardware and
software. Few local companies are developing computer application packages. Most of
the software used by both public and private sectors is imported at considerable cost. The
use of open-source software is on the lower side. Overall, Tanzania has a small emerging
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