My 125
Member
- Nov 7, 2011
- 30
- 7
BY HASINA MJINGO, 18 MARCH
2012
Comment
TANZANIA has experienced a
tremendous revolution in the
communication sector, a
situation that has led to a rapid
growth in the use of
Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) over the past
decade.
This was said on Saturday by
the Minister for Communication,
Science and Technology, Prof.
Makame Mbarawa, at a meeting
in Dar es Salaam on the
International Broadband Fibre
connectivity between Tanzania
and Malawi.
The minister said that the
communication improvement
was prompted by the fast
changing technology in the
global ICT industry.
He cited the rapid changes in the
mobile telephone technology as
one of the biggest growths in
the ICT industry. "With a limited
ICT backbone infrastructure,
mobile telephony has always
been a technology of choice to
both users and network
operators."
He added that it has resulted in
an increase of mobile phone
users from less than 100,000 in
the late 1990s to about 20
million in December 2010, which
translates to around 50 per cent
teledensity. This contributed
about 25 per cent to the
national GDP in 2009/2010
financial year. The minister was
elaborating on the success to
Malawi's Minister for
Information and Civil Education,
Mrs Patricia Kaliati.
The Malawi delegation envisages
a link to international
connectivity mainly to
submarine cables. Minister
Mbarawa said the government
took a bold step to connect all
its regions and districts so that
they can have access to the
10,000-kilometre long national
and regional broadband
infrastructure.
"This technology is not only
resilient to bad weathers,
including rain, but it possesses
better characteristics such as
high bandwidth capacity,
compactness, low transmission
losses, high signal security,
immunity to interference and
system reliability. "It is also easy
to maintain. These are among
the most important qualities.
The technology is also more
efficient and reliable for
communication over satellite-
base communication," the
minister said.
He added that the project's
financial resources for the initial
two phases come from three
main sources -- 30 billion
shillings from the government's
development budget; 170
million US dollars being a
concessional loan from the
government of China and 100
million dollars generated from
the project's operations.
"The government, through its
ministry is encouraging
partnership and collaboration
with operators from Malawi,
similar to Regional
Communications Infrastructure
project in Malawi (RCIP-Malawi).
"Tanzania is also implementing a
100 million dollar project to
deliver connectivity to local and
central government
departments such as e-
government network," he
pointed out.
Impressed by Tanzania's
success, Minister Patricia Kaliati
said that the main objective of
their visit is to learn from
Tanzanian experts since they
hope to adapt the new
technology. "Malawi uses
satellite communication, which
is very expensive. But this will
change when we start using the
fibre broadband," she said.
The National ICT Broadband
Backbone Project (NICTBB) is
already connected to two major
submarine cables of SEACOM and
EASSy, extending the
connectivity to the
neighbouring countries. The
virtual landing station of the
submarine cables through the
NICTBB have been established at
the respective cross-border
points of Rwanda, Uganda,
Malawi, Zambia and Kenya.
Tagged: Business, East
Africa, ICT, Malawi, Southern
Africa, Tanzania
2012
Comment
TANZANIA has experienced a
tremendous revolution in the
communication sector, a
situation that has led to a rapid
growth in the use of
Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) over the past
decade.
This was said on Saturday by
the Minister for Communication,
Science and Technology, Prof.
Makame Mbarawa, at a meeting
in Dar es Salaam on the
International Broadband Fibre
connectivity between Tanzania
and Malawi.
The minister said that the
communication improvement
was prompted by the fast
changing technology in the
global ICT industry.
He cited the rapid changes in the
mobile telephone technology as
one of the biggest growths in
the ICT industry. "With a limited
ICT backbone infrastructure,
mobile telephony has always
been a technology of choice to
both users and network
operators."
He added that it has resulted in
an increase of mobile phone
users from less than 100,000 in
the late 1990s to about 20
million in December 2010, which
translates to around 50 per cent
teledensity. This contributed
about 25 per cent to the
national GDP in 2009/2010
financial year. The minister was
elaborating on the success to
Malawi's Minister for
Information and Civil Education,
Mrs Patricia Kaliati.
The Malawi delegation envisages
a link to international
connectivity mainly to
submarine cables. Minister
Mbarawa said the government
took a bold step to connect all
its regions and districts so that
they can have access to the
10,000-kilometre long national
and regional broadband
infrastructure.
"This technology is not only
resilient to bad weathers,
including rain, but it possesses
better characteristics such as
high bandwidth capacity,
compactness, low transmission
losses, high signal security,
immunity to interference and
system reliability. "It is also easy
to maintain. These are among
the most important qualities.
The technology is also more
efficient and reliable for
communication over satellite-
base communication," the
minister said.
He added that the project's
financial resources for the initial
two phases come from three
main sources -- 30 billion
shillings from the government's
development budget; 170
million US dollars being a
concessional loan from the
government of China and 100
million dollars generated from
the project's operations.
"The government, through its
ministry is encouraging
partnership and collaboration
with operators from Malawi,
similar to Regional
Communications Infrastructure
project in Malawi (RCIP-Malawi).
"Tanzania is also implementing a
100 million dollar project to
deliver connectivity to local and
central government
departments such as e-
government network," he
pointed out.
Impressed by Tanzania's
success, Minister Patricia Kaliati
said that the main objective of
their visit is to learn from
Tanzanian experts since they
hope to adapt the new
technology. "Malawi uses
satellite communication, which
is very expensive. But this will
change when we start using the
fibre broadband," she said.
The National ICT Broadband
Backbone Project (NICTBB) is
already connected to two major
submarine cables of SEACOM and
EASSy, extending the
connectivity to the
neighbouring countries. The
virtual landing station of the
submarine cables through the
NICTBB have been established at
the respective cross-border
points of Rwanda, Uganda,
Malawi, Zambia and Kenya.
Tagged: Business, East
Africa, ICT, Malawi, Southern
Africa, Tanzania
