Telecommunications in Tanzania

Telecommunications in Tanzania include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet available in mainland Tanzania and the semiautonomous Zanzibar archipelago.

Regulation and licensing

In 2005, mainland Tanzania, but not the semiautonomous Zanzibar archipelago, modified its licensing system for electronic communications, modelling it on the approach successfully pioneered in Malaysia in the late 1990s where traditional "vertical" licenses (the right to operate a telecom or a broadcasting network, and right to provide services on that network) are replaced by "horizontal" licenses (the right to operate telecom and broadcasting networks, with a separate license required to provide services on each network). Called the "Converged Licensing Framework (CLF)", this reform was the first of its kind put into practice on the African continent, and allows investors to concentrate on their area of expertise (i.e. network facility, network services, application services, and content services) across a larger number of previously separate sectors (i.e. telecommunications, broadcasting, Internet). This reform should, among other things, facilitate the arrival of telephone services over cable television networks, television services over telecommunications networks, and Internet services over all types of networks.

Under the Converged Licensing Framework four categories of license are available:

• Network facility, the provision of any element or combination of physical infrastructure used principally for, or in connection with, the provision of Content services and other Application services, but not including customer premise equipment;
• Network service, a service for carrying information in the form of speech or other sound, data, text or images, by means of guided or unguided electromagnetic energy, but not including services provided solely on the customer side of the network boundary;
• Application service, the reselling of electronic communication services to end users; and
• Content service, a service offered for sound, data, text or images whether still or moving except where transmitted on private communication.

At the end of 2013 there were:

• 21 network facility operators: 8 international and national, 11 national, and 2 regional;
• 17 network service operators: 8 international and national, 6 national, and 3 regional;
• 91 application service operators: 1 international, 15 international and national, 62 national, 11 regional, and 2 district;
• 85 radio content service operators: 6 national + commercial, 10 regional + commercial, 7 regional + non-commercial, 30 district + commercial, and 29 district + non-commercial;
• 30 television content service operators: 5 national + commercial, 4 regional + commercial, 1 regional + non-commercial, 6 district + commercial, and 17 district + non-commercial.

A complete list of licensed operators and contractors is available from the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) website.

Radio and television

• A state-owned national radio station and more than 40 privately owned radio stations are in operation (2007).
• A state-owned TV station and multiple privately owned TV stations are in operation (2007).
• The transmissions of several international broadcasters are available (2007).

There are government restrictions on broadcasting in tribal languages.

The semiautonomous Zanzibari government controls the content of all public and private radio and television broadcasts in its islands. Even in the case of state television broadcast from the mainland, there was a delay in the feed, allowing Zanzibari censors to intervene. However, Zanzibari radio stations operate relatively independently, often reading the content of national dailies, including articles critical of the Zanzibari government.

Telephones

See also: Telephone numbers in Tanzania

• Calling code: +255
• International call prefix: 000
• Main lines: 161,100 lines in use, 133rd in the world (2011).
• Mobile cellular: 27.2 million lines, 39th in the world (2012).
• Telephone system: telecommunications services are marginal; fixed-line telephone network inadequate with less than 1 connection per 100 persons; system operating below capacity and being modernized for better service; Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) system under construction; mobile-cellular service, aided by multiple providers, is increasing rapidly and in 2011 exceeded a subscriber base of 50 telephones per 100 persons; trunk service provided by open-wire, microwave radio relay, tropospheric scatter, and fiber-optic cable; some links being made digital (2010).
• Communications cables: landing point for two fiber-optic cables (2010):
  • SEACOM submarine and terrestrial high speed fibre-optic cable linking the countries of the east and west coasts of Africa to each other and on to Europe and India; and
  • the EASSy fiber-optic submarine cable system linking East Africa with Europe, and North America.
• Satellite earth stations: 2 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean, 1 Atlantic Ocean) (2010).

Mobile telephone services were usually available only in urban areas, but efforts to provide nationwide coverage are improving the situation. Competition in Tanzania's telecommunication sector is expected to get stiffer after the country's regulatory authority licensed four more cellular phone service providers in 2006 to bring the number to ten.

Mobile phone companies

Some of the mobile phone companies operating in Tanzania are:

• Airtel Tanzania
• Benson Informatics Limited
• MIC Tanzania Limited (tiGO), formerly Mobitel.
• Sasatel Tanzania
• Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited
• Vodacom Tanzania
• Zanzibar Telecom Limited (Zantel), providing service in Zanzibar, owned by Etisalat UAE, the government of Zanzibar, and Meeco International of Tanzania.
• Smart Telecom

Internet

• Top-level domain: .tz
• Internet users:
  • 6.1 million users, 51st in the world; 13.1% of the population, 161st in the world (2012);
  • 678,000 users, 111th in the world (2009).
• Fixed broadband: 3,753 subscriptions, 164th in the world; less than 0.05% of the population, 187th in the world (2012).
• Wireless broadband: 698,531 subscriptions, 81st in the world; 1.5% of the population, 130th in the world (2012).
• Internet hosts: 26,074 hosts, 110th in the world (2012).
• IPv4: 339,712 addresses allocated, less than 0.05% of the world total, 7.8 addresses per 1000 people (2012).

Internet services have been available since 1995, but there was no international fiber connectivity available until 2009. Before then, connectivity to the rest of the world, including to neighboring countries, was obtained using satellite networks. The SEACOM and Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) submarine fiber cable projects implemented in 2009 and 2010 respectively brought higher speed Internet connectivity to Tanzania with lower latency and lower cost. This resulted in more than an eight-fold improvement in download speeds from between 90 and 200 kbit/s in mid to late 2008 to between 1.5 and 1.8 Mbit/s in late 2009 with further improvements to between 3.6 and 4.2 Mbit/s in 2013.

Internet service providers

Some of the Internet Service Providers operating in Tanzania are:

• Africa Online
• Afsat Communications Tanzania Limited
• Arusha Node Marie
• Benson Online
• Cats-Net
• Juasun.net, rural based ISP.
• Kicheko
• Raha
• SimbaNet
• Spicenet
• Tansat
• Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL).
• University of Dar es Salaam Computing Centre
• ZanLink

Data operators

Some of the data operators in Tanzania are:

• Afsat Communications Tanzania Limited
• Alink Telecom Tanzania Limited, formerly DATEL.
• SatCom Networks Africa Limited
• Six Telecoms Company Limited
• Tansat
• Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL).
• SimbaNet
• Spicenet

Internet censorship and surveillance

There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet; however, the government monitors Web sites that criticize the government. Police also monitor the Internet to combat illegal activities.

The constitution provides for freedom of speech, but does not explicitly provide for freedom of the press. A permit is required for reporting on police or prison activities, and journalists need special permission to attend meetings in the Zanzibar House of Representatives. Anyone publishing information accusing a Zanzibari representative of involvement in illegal activities is liable to a fine of not less than 250,000 Tanzanian shillings (TZS) ($158), three years’ imprisonment, or both. Nothing in the law specifies whether this penalty stands if the allegation is proven true. Media outlets often practice self-censorship to avoid conflict with the government.

The law generally prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence without a search warrant, but the government does not consistently respect these prohibitions. It is widely believed that security forces monitor telephones and correspondence of some citizens and foreign residents. The actual nature and extent of this practice is unknown.

See also

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

References

•  This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2014 edition".
•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of State.

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). p. 40. 
• Suhail Sheriff (March 2007). Rural connectivity in Tanzania: Options and challenges. International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). p. 16. 

External links

• Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).
• Zanzibar Telecom Ltd (ZANTEL).
• tzNIC, registry for the .tz domain.