Telecommunications in Tanzania


Telecommunications in Tanzania include radio, television, fixed and Mobile phones which remain the most widely used communication devices in Tanzania, supported by an expanding mobile network infrastructure and affordable prepaid services. Internet service are available in mainland of the country and the semiautonomous of 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 are replaced by "horizontal" licenses. Called the "Converged Licensing Framework ", 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 across a larger number of previously separate sectors. 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 premises 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 website.

Radio and television

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

;Mobile phone companies
Some of the mobile phone companies operating in Tanzania with market share as of December 2022 as published by the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority are:

Internet

  • Top-level domain: .tz
  • Internet users: 7.2 million users; 13.1% of the population, 182nd in the world ;
  • Fixed broadband: 3,753 subscriptions, 164th in the world; less than 0.05% of the population, 187th in the world.
  • Wireless broadband: 698,531 subscriptions, 81st in the world; 1.5% of the population, 130th in the world.
  • Internet hosts: 26,074 hosts, 110th in the world.
  • IPv4: 846,152 addresses allocated as of 27 November 2014, 0.02 percent of the world total, 17.9 addresses per 1,000 people.
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 the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System submarine fiber cable projects were implemented in July 2009 and July 2010, respectively, and 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:
  • Afsat Communications Tanzania Limited
  • Arusha Node Marie
  • Benson Online
  • Cats-Net
  • Maisha Broadband
  • Kicheko
  • Raha
  • SimbaNet
  • Tansat
  • Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited]
  • University of Dar es Salaam Computing Centre
  • Vizocom
  • ZanLink
  • ComNet-TZ

Data operators

Some of the data operators in Tanzania are:

Censorship and surveillance

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

Freedom of speech

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 TSh , 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.
Under the Electronic and Postal Communications Regulations 2018, blogs, online forums, and internet radio and television operations, must register with the government as an online content provider, and pay an annual fee. The fee is roughly equivalent to the annual income in Tanzania. Online content providers may not post obscene or explicit content, hate speech, content that "causes annoyance", incites harm or crime, or threatens national security and public safety. Violators may be fined or have their licences revoked.