 Telecommunications:
a highly competitive environment |
Restructuring of the telecommunications sector started by dividing the state owned Tanzania Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (TP&TC) in 1993. Following deregulation of the telecommunication sector by a 1993 Parliamentary Act, the TP&PC was divided into Tanzania Communications Commission (TCC), a regulatory authority of the sector, Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) and Tanzania Posts Corporation (TPC). While TCC shall remain a state run regulatory body, TTCL has already found a foreign partner, Detecom, a consortium of German and Dutch telecommunication companies, which acquired 70 percent of the shares in July this year. On the other hand Tanzania Posts Corporation (TPC) is handling stiff market competition by taking the country aboard the cyberspace revolution. "We are also trying to see how we can get into e-mail, which is a new way of sending messages. This is because we see the traditional way of sending mail slowly losing the market to the new technology, so we think that we also should get into this business," TPC's Postmaster General M.S. Msofe said.
In general investment opportunities in this sector are enormous, because Tanzania is one of the African countries with a big market potential for the services, particularly in remote regions. The specific target of the national sector policy is to achieve a telephone density of six telephones per 100 people by the year 2020, The Honorable Minister Ernest Nyanda pointed out. In order to reach such ambitious levels, the government is encouraging massive foreign direct investment in the sector whose technological advancement in the world, is very fast.
A number of mobile phone operators such as MIC Tanzania Limited (Mobitel), Tri-Telecommunications (T) Ltd, Vodacom Tanzania Limited and Zantel have been licensed. Mobitel , which was the first ever private cellular phone operator to be licenced in 1993, has already managed an annual turnover of over 40m dollars with thousands of customers on its list.
| As for the future of Tanzania's telecommunications sector, Mobitel General Manager Jim Bell said, "Mobitel is an information service provider, not just a cellular telephone company, and hence the move into providing Internet access. We are actively looking at other areas to provide additional information services. As we move down the GSM route we will launch new services including SMS and Internet access over a handset."
TTCL has under the 250m dollars telecommunications restructuring programme (TRP), financed by a number of donors including Japan, Sweden, European Union and others, managed to increase telephone exchange capacity. But the TRP's fundamental achievement may be digitalisation of the exchange facility by over 90 percent while tele-density has reached 0.4 percent.
Other private licensed operators in the sector include public data communication companies such as Datel with five more operators licensed, portal companies such as Newafrica.com which is reaching the group of top three African promotion internet sites. Guidelines for new areas requiring private investment include the global mobile personal communications by satellite (GMPCS), via which the government of Tanzania hopes to ensure extension of services to millions of Tanzanians residing in rural areas characterised by poor telecommunication network. The project is still in the pipelines and jointly funded by Tanzanian government and donors. |
