International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security (IJCSIS),
Vol. 15, No. 4, April 2017
Overview of Broadband Connectivity for Rural
Areas-Tanzania as a Case Study
Mastidia Byanyuma & Zaipuna O. Yonah, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
(NM-AIST) Arusha, Tanzania
Fatuma Simba
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Lena Trojer
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden
behind the poor or inadequate provision of services in rural
areas include among others; perceived business risk
attributed to unpredictable revenue streams, high
investment cost attributed to infrastructural and cost
demands of the current technology, unstable policies in
some countries and weak business models [7]. These and
other problems have slowed down development in these
areas because traditionally investors perceive rural and
urban underserved areas as low revenue, high costs, and
high-risk areas.
The Tanzania government has embarked on
connecting the last mile in rural and urban-underserved
areas through various initiatives. The last phase (5th Phase)
of the National Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) Broadband Backbone (NICTBB)
project is to extend the broadband connectivity to the last
mile in rural and urban-underserved areas. Mobile
Operators through the UCSAF subsidization initiative and
Halotel have collectively covered more than 90% of the
geographical area of the country in which case every ward
has at least a 2G cellular network coverage.
However, according to the National ICT policy of
2016 (NICTP2016), most citizens still cannot access
broadband services [8]. This is in line with Kwigizile et al
who contends that, the lack of ICTs is a lower barrier than
affordability [9]. These facts suggests that, there is more to
just bringing broadband connectivity to rural and urban
underserved areas and these are discussed in this paper.
Despite the stated inadequacy of broadband services to
rural areas, the engagement of rural communities is crucial
for economic development and social transformation
through e-governance [10] and other programs. Broadband
service, in particular, is an important contributor to
increased country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), job
creation, broadening of education opportunities, public
service delivery, and rural development if the reach,
availability, and affordability are guaranteed and the
demand and supply side skills to exploit the economic and
innovative potential of broadband are developed [11].
This paper gives an overview and a discussion on
technologies, broadband connectivity models, infrastructure
and policy readiness, and initiatives towards achieving
Abstract—Broadband connectivity is a necessary service
required not only in urban areas but more so in rural areas
where most of the basic services are inadequate or do not exist
at all. Broadband services can enable many services to be
offered through information and communication technologies
(ICTs) to the extent that rural people can get a chance to enjoy
quality communication and other services as in urban areas
and be part of the socio-economic development of a given
community. Currently, there is a number of technologies and
initiatives to connect rural and urban-underserved areas at a
reasonable cost but most of the rural users are yet to be
connected. This paper gives an overview and a discussion on
technologies, broadband connectivity models, infrastructure
and policy readiness, and initiatives towards achieving
connectivity and bridging the digital divide. The context of this
paper is rural areas in Tanzania.
Index Terms—Broadband connectivity, WiMAX, Optic
Fibre Cable, rural and urban-underserved, broadband
technologies, digital divide.
I.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, broadband connectivity has been a
necessity for provision of real-time applications to subsidize
the lack of basic services in most areas of developing
countries. However, last mile broadband connectivity (i.e.
extending the available infrastructure to reach rural users)
has been taking a slow speed. Despite its importance to
national economies and the personal lives of users, its
availability and adoption are not diffusing in rural and
urban areas at the same rates [1]. The main reason to this
remains the lack of purchasing power to attract investments.
This is evident from various governments’ initiatives to
subsidize the same through Universal Communications
Services Access Funds like UCSAF in Tanzania, Universal
Service Fund (USF)-Kenya and Universal Service and
Access Fund (USAF)-South Africa.
Most of these rural areas are without or have poor
basic facilities such as hospitals, schools, road and other
social services [2, 3]. In Tanzania, for example, there are
many schools in rural areas with very few teachers, with no
laboratories, books and other learning tools [4, 5]. These
areas are also the ones inhabited by more than 70% [6] of
the population despite the lack of basic needs. Reasons
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increased from 12% in 2011 also indicating a
tremendous growth in a very short time. The
combination of growth in mobile broadband
penetration and the emerging cost-effective
technologies are likely to impact communities since
currently, mobile technology is the only technology
that can reach most of the areas easily, a fact that
connectivity and bridging the digital divide. The context of
this paper is rural areas in Tanzania.
The paper is organized as follows: Sections II to V
discusses broadband and associated services, an overview
of broadband technologies, broadband models and
initiatives available for providing connectivity in rural
areas, respectively; while Sections VI to VII present the
infrastructure and policy readiness respectively. Section
VIII concludes the paper.
promises more investment in the sector hence increased
associated benefits to the society.
II. WHY BROADBAND?
Broadband is the transmission capacity that is faster
than the primary rate Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN) of at least 2.0 Megabits per second (Mbps). With
this capacity, end users can browse the internet, transfer
information (multimedia) more freely and possibly on real
time speed. In areas with challenging transport and other
socio-economic
infrastructure,
telecommunications
infrastructure in terms of both voice, data, and video plays a
greater role in balancing the socio-economic activities of
such areas. Broadband technology in particular is termed as
general purpose technology because adoption of the same
results in improved lives in a given area as seen from
minimized depopulation caused by poor living conditions in
rural areas in the Bavaria State in German; and indicating
that an improved broadband coverage makes these
municipalities more valuable places to live [12]. Taking an
example of mobile money innovation in East Africa [13],
through telecoms infrastructure, financial services are
everywhere regardless of the geographical situation of an
area as long as mobile coverage is there. This is why
Donner [14] confirm that a mobile phone is a vehicle that
could be utilized efficiently to generate profits and reduce
costs in business enterprises [15], a fact any entrepreneur
will capitalize on.
On the other hand, broadband connectivity has made it
possible for social networking applications such as
WhatsApp, twitter, and Facebook which continue to bring
people closer in space such that distance is no longer an
issue. Some users have benefited from sharing useful
information on farming, health, educational and news on
what is happening worldwide. Others have used them to
promote their businesses, product, and services close to free
of charge. All these have been possible through broadband
media in particular mobile broadband through the cellular
network, which has comparatively wider coverage in rural
areas.
The cellular network coverage is increasing yearly
along with improvement in value-added services and
applications (mobile apps), which comes with associated
benefits to users. From Fig. 1, the mobile cellular
penetration rate worldwide is 97% (7 billion mobile cellular
subscriptions) which has increased from 738 million
subscriptions in 2000 whereas the mobile broadband
technology had a penetration of about 47.2% in 2015 that
increased about 12 times since 2007. The global internet
penetration in terms of individual using the internet was
43.4% in 2015 [16].
47.2
43.4
Percentage
96.8
Global ICT Growth Indicators-2015
Mobile cellular telephone
subscription
Mobile Broadband Subscription
ICT Growth Indicators
Fig 1: Global ICT Indicators (Source: [17]).
Internet Users and Penetration
x 100000
200
180
40%
160
35%
163
29%
45%
180
34%
140
21%
120
25%
113
17%
100
80
12%
37
40
20
15%
75
60
60
5%
19
10
7
7
11 8
10
2012
2013
2014
8
7
12
3
6
2015
2016
‐5%
‐
2011
Fixed Wireless
Fixed Wired
Mobile Wireless
Penetration
Fig 2: Internet Users by Technology Type and Penetration in Tanzania
(Source:[18]).
Users regardless of their geographical area need
affordable and reliable broadband access, which is vital for
the provision of sophisticated ICT applications [17] such as
telemedicine, e-learning and other innovations that may
come up in the cause of science and technology
advancement to improve livelihood.
In this study, we find that broadband connectivity is
currently not an issue to worry about but the issue is
adoption, availability, and usage and user experience of
broadband services.
III. OVERVIEW OF BROADBAND TECHNOLOGIES
There are many different types of broadband
technologies which may be wired or wireless technologies.
Most of the wired technologies such as dial-up, Advanced
Digital Subscriber line (ADSL), Cable, leased line (T1),
Broadband over Powerline (BPL) and fiber optic cable have
for a long time been expensive means to reach rural areas
where in most cases the population density is very low. On
the other hand, wireless technologies such as fixed wireless,
Wi-Fi, Satellite, Television White Space (TVWS) [18–20],
GPRS/EDGE, (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave
On the other hand, Fig. 2 shows the trend of
internet use in Tanzania where the mobile wireless has
shown an increasing rate from 2011 to 2016. The
internet penetration including both wired and wireless
(fixed and mobile) were 40% in 2016 which had
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to achieve the desired service. Examples of rural and urban
underserved areas models are Mesh networks, Broadband
Island, Nokia Siemens Networks and Rural Netco shared
broadband model. These are presented in the next
paragraphs. These models aim at connecting the rural areas
in its totality. While these models are prospective general
technology especially proposed for the rural areas, currently
Tanzania has a cellular coverage of about 90% as stated
previously and fiber optic network coverage of almost
25600 km (government 7600 km and Halotel 18,000km).
Access (WiMAX)[21–24] and Long Term Evolution (LTE)
are available and can be used to connect the rural users.
Other fixed wireless technologies are such as the Local
Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) and Multichannel
Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) [26], [27].
Among all these technologies, only a few can be used cost
effectively to provide rural and urban-underserved areas
broadband connectivity due to various reasons. For
instance, the wired technologies need comparatively higher
investment cost to reach rural areas making them nonfeasible for rural last mile connectivity. The wireless
technology in rural and urban-underserved areas of
Tanzania are dominated by GPRS, EDGE and VSAT
network services which offer limited throughput unsuitable
for real-time applications. UMTS, HSPA, and LTE are
deployed in urban areas where population density justifies
investment leaving rural areas uncovered by these high
capacity technologies [28]. The possible reasons for
deployment of UMTS, HSPA, and LTE only in city centers
are coverage limitation that would require significant
investment costs to cover all rural areas.
However, some of these technologies can be used as
first or middle mile in combination with other wireless
technologies. Various initiatives have proposed or
implemented a combination of the above technologies to
achieve reach, capacity, and quality of service. In some of
these, both wired and wireless technologies have been
recommended to be used together to achieve the required
throughput and convenience. Example, in some areas fiber
optic technology [28] has been proposed to be combined
with MMDS as the access network to reach rural and urbanunderserved areas. Alternatively, UMTS operating at
900MHz is used to extend the capacity and coverage of
UMTS at 2100MHz to rural areas where the available
technology is GSM/EDGE with low data rate [29].
Various technologies are available to date to achieve
broadband connectivity and these are either implemented in
different areas or are proposed to be implemented. Most of
these are a combination of one or two technologies with the
aim of lowering capital expenditure (CAPEX) and
operational expenditure (OPEX) while achieving the
desired goal in terms of quality of service, reach,
sustainability and affordability. In this section, both used
and proposed technology set-ups for broadband
connectivity for rural areas are presented.
A combination of different technologies has been
recommended to be a good option to reach rural areas cost
effectively with required throughput. This is because some
of the technologies despite their high capacity and QoS are
not viable to use to extend the same as the access network.
For instance, combining Optic Fibre technology with
WiMAX (FiWi) is one of the hybrid technology where
WiMAX is used to extend the reach of Fibre Optic
connectivity to the users [29]. Such set up are Passive
Optical Network (PON) with WiMAX integration and
Optical Fibre with WiMAX integration as shown in Figs. 3
and 4, respectively:
Fig 3: PON and WiMAX Integration [29].
Fig 4: Optical Fibre with WiMAX [29].
A. Mesh Networks
A WiMAX mesh network that lowers the subscriber's
cost and helps to bridge the digital divide through the
elimination of the middleman (i.e. ISPs) is proposed in [30].
WiMAX mesh network is based on Wireless Mesh Network
(WMN), a special kind of Mobile Ad Hoc Network
(MANET) with the WiMAX technology as a wireless part
of the network.
WMNs have special characteristics such as dynamic
self-organization, self-configuring, self-healing, high
scalability and reliable services and are able to balance
traffic and provide support to drop connections to fixed or
mobile clients [31]. These are convenient characteristics for
a network in rural areas where constant network
management may make the business unprofitable. The basic
topology of an IEEE 802.16 mesh network consists of two
parts namely; Base Station (BS), a coordinating node and
Subscriber Station (SS).
B. Broadband Island
As a move to address further the access gap, Nungu et
al [32] developed an Island model to make use of unutilized
TANESCO fiber optic network that existed between Bunda
and Serengeti districts in Mara Region, Tanzania. In this
model, only local communication among government
offices, education, healthcare, and other entrepreneurs were
considered. This broadband island had a narrowband VSAT
connection to the Internet but the main focus was local
connectivity. In similar set ups, unutilized networks can be
used to provide not only voice but also broadband services
IV. BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY MODEL TRENDS FOR
RURAL AREAS
Various models are proposed by various researchers
for Tanzania environment taking into consideration of
technology, network set up, management and other factors
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to users around that network. Promotion and mainstreaming
the broadband island model can benefit many at a
reasonable cost.
Equity Ow ners
Infrastructure operator and adm inistrator
Financial Institutions
O ther stakeholders
C. Nokia Siemens Village Network
The Nokia Siemens Village Connection (NSVC)
system is PC based, using IP (Internet Protocol), with
backhauling delivered mainly by satellite. Each Access
Point is supported by a regional Access Centre which can
support up to 200 Access Points with each Access Centre
providing network coverage for up to 14,000 subscribers
[33]. The NSVC uses a different business model in which
all the village internal calls are connected locally and only
rest of the world calls go out of the village network as
shown in Fig.5. This significantly lowers CAPEX and
OPEX costs by avoiding unnecessary use of bandwidth and
hence the reduction in connection cost. The other cost
serving technique is through the use of antenna on village
buildings instead of installing masts which normally add
cost. This cost effective network has been successful in
India where the rural population has started to enjoy the
services just like in urban centers. Because of lack of power
in rural areas the village connection network make use of
low capacity solar panels on the customer’s house.
Rural Infrastructure
Com pany
R ural N etw ork
Operator 1
O perator 2
O perator 2
C onsum ers
Fig 6: Rural Netco Shared Broadband Model.
According to the BE Weekly magazine [37], Rural
Netco is currently providing coverage to 23 regions in
Tanzania. This is a huge coverage if the remaining
operators can enter into an agreement and cover those areas
with value added services. The Rural Netco covers a given
area and lets the operators use their network to provide
services to users as shown in Fig. 6. This model is attractive
in a way that it allows the company to benefit from
economies of scale while contributing to the realization of
co-location and sharing of resources that is stipulated in the
Electronic and Postal Communications Act (EPOCA).
E. Television White Spaces (TVWS)
Television White Space (TVWS) is the recent
technology that uses the unoccupied television (TV)
frequency band for non-broadcasting services such as
broadband services. TVWSs exist in the spectrum primarily
used for digital terrestrial TV broadcasting, that is, 470
MHz to 694 MHz.
Recently, TVWS was recommended for use in rural
areas due to associated low cost of operation and a
substantial amount of bandwidth for broadband services.,
they can provide broadband connectivity of up to 14Mbps
(Ref). A typical example of the implementation of TVWS is
the project that has connected 5 schools in the rural
Mankweng Township at a distance of around 10 km around
the University of Limpopo in South Africa [38]. In this
particular project, each of the five schools received a
donation of 31 tablets, an overhead projector, and
smartphone to enable eLearning delivery. There is another
good example in Tanzania whereby Microsoft in
collaboration with The Commission for Science and
Technology (COSTECH) and UhuruOne, a Tanzanian ISP
organized a project to provide affordable wireless
broadband access to university students and faculty in Dar
es Salaam using TVWS radios from 6Harmonics. In this
project, 4 higher leaning institutions are involved and this
partnership will enable UhuruOne to offer a laptop or tablet,
wireless broadband connectivity, and applications and
services to cover a student population of about 50,000 at
four universities: the Institute of Financial Management, the
Dar es Salaam School of Journalism, the Institute of Social
Work and The Open University of Tanzania.[39].
Apart from providing broadband connectivity in rural
and underserved areas, TVWS can effectively improve
spectrum utilization and alleviate spectrum scarcity and
Fig 5: Nokia Siemens Village Network [33].
In Tanzania, Nokia Siemens Networks and Vodacom
Tanzania Limited entered into an agreement to implement
the Nokia Siemens Networks Village Connection Solution
[15], as an innovative and unique solution to resolve the
challenge of rural coverage to deliver cost effective network
capacity (i.e. low capital expenditure, CAPEX) at a low
operating cost (OPEX). The solution was set to start in 2008
with a trial implementation and later be extended elsewhere
in the country.
This arrangement has a promising future but at the
time of writing this paper, there was no progress report on
the project in Tanzania. The implementation ended only on
trial stage. Although the reasons are unknown, it can be
attributed to lack of customers interested in the service due
to the fact that they were not involved in project planning as
noted in [34] and [35].
D. Rural Netco Shared Broadband Model
The Rural Netco Broadband Model is a wholesale
model operating in Tanzania from which the operators buy
the capacity to provide services to their customers. The
company launched their services commercially with
Vodacom, the largest in Tanzania in September 2013 with
market share of 37% compared to Airtel (32%), Tigo
(23%), Zantel (7%)TTCL (1%) and Benson (0.002%) as
indicated on TCRA website [36].
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telecentre was implemented in Mwanza region in 2000. It
was expected that installation of such centers would
increase with time but ten (10) years later only 22
telecentres are reported to exist [43] which is a very small
number compared to a number of areas in need of such
services. This means the expected impact of telecentres are
yet to be realized [44]. Looking at the investment structure
of such initiatives most of which were donor-funded and at
the end of the funding duration most of these telecentres
failed to operate despite the inclusion of secretarial and
other services as part of the diversification strategy to
sustain the centers. Fig. 8 is the Sengerema Telecentre in
Mwanza, Tanzania, which shows the presence of a radio
service, Radio Sengerema (98.8 FM), as part of the center’s
services [44].
Although the inception of telecentres in Tanzania was
well before the institution of the National ICT Policies
(NICTP-2003 and NICTP 2016), telecentres have always
been recommended for shared access and means for
aggregating traffic in areas where customers are sparsely
populated and purchasing power on an individual basis is
low, as such then, achieving the universal access remains a
challenge.
when compared with Log Term Evolution (LTE) for rural
broadband, TVWS is more cost effective. However, very
few countries have fully regulated and adopted TVWS for
broadband services. In countries like Tanzania, Ghana,
Kenya, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, trial projects
have been implemented by Microsoft in collaboration with
local Service Provider to support various media protocols,
such as streaming videos, emails, FTP, Skype voice and
video conferencing, and high-speed VPN services[39].
Fig.7 shows a TVWS network architecture which
comprises of the 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi access points (APs),
which connect directly to the TVWS customer premise
equipment, or CPE using standard Cat5 or Cat6 cable. The
CPE communicates with the TVWS base stations (BS)
through a TVWS air interface protocol, e.g. IEEE 802.11af,
which can be located within several hundred meters of the
CPE or kilometers away. The TVWS radio attaches behind
the antenna to the same pipe mount and an RF jumper
connects to the antenna while Cat5 cable drops to the Wi-Fi
AP or Ethernet switch [39], [40].
When it comes to what technology to be used in
connecting a specific area in rural areas, a number of factors
need to be considered to come up with the right one for the
area: type of services, ownership and purchasing power of
the people in that area.
Fig 7: TVWS network Architecture.
Fig 8: Sengerema, Mwanza Telecentre. Source [44].
V. INITIATIVES TO ACHIEVE BROADBAND
CONNECTIVITY
At the time the Tanzania telecentre initiative was being
introduced for rural and remote areas in 1998, the access
technologies were mainly VSATs due to their being located
far from the reach of wired and other networks. With
VSATs, the main challenge was annual satellite charges
even when the link is not used. With the positive changes in
technology coupled with high capacity, affordable and
reliable networks, telecentres of today are expected to
perform even better. This is why to date the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) recognizes telecentres as
one of the strategies to overcome access barriers to
universalizing broadband in low population and places with
low purchasing power [41]. This means countries such as
Tanzania need to consider mainstreaming the telecentre
model for low purchasing power users if it has to achieve
broadband connectivity for all.
A number of initiatives to achieve the goals of
Tanzania Vision 2025 and the objectives of NICTP2003/2016 have been implemented and together have
helped in some ways to reduce the digital divide. Some of
these initiatives are the telecentres, the NICTBB project and
the Universal Communication Service Access Fund
(UCSAF). Initially, when the telecentres were first
instituted the main service considered was the voice service.
However, the current telecentre model considers broadband
connectivity because the technologies to facilitate that are
available. This is why the ITU/UNESCO report of 2013
[41] recommends telecentres as a means to address
broadband access barriers in areas with low population
density and low purchasing power. In this section, each of
the initiatives is briefly presented and discussed.
B. The Tanzania National ICT Broadband Backbone
(NICTBB)
A. Telecentres
Telecentres are places where shared access to ICT and
enabled services are available and are used to bridge the
digital divides between rural and urban areas [42].
Telecentres were initially introduced in 1998 for developing
countries as a means to achieve universal access and hence
socio-economic development. In Tanzania, Sengerema pilot
In order to realize the vision of the NICTP-2003
"Tanzania becoming a hub of ICT Infrastructure and ICT
solutions that enhance sustainable socio-economic
development and accelerated poverty reduction both
nationally and globally", the government through the
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Between 2012 and 2013, the fund issued two subsidy
tender bids for the provision of basic voice
telecommunications services under contracts: (UCAF2012-1 and UCAF-2013-1) covering a total of 223 wards
and 1284 villages [47]. In Tanzania, a ward is an
administrative structure consisting of several villages in
rural areas or streets in urban areas. Universal Access plan
is expected to cover a total of 340 wards with about 2500
villages in total. It can be noted that both tender bids require
operators to provide basic voice services to these rural
areas. Although the voice service is one way to
development but yet still, broadband connectivity is as
important considering real-time applications that require
more than just mobile voice services. Fortunately, with the
availability of Fibre Network coverage to the district level
and the wireless coverage that is being established, it is now
possible to extend the broadband connectivity through a
combination of various technologies that are already
available in the market. For instance, the recent launch of
3G and LTE mobile broadband services can easily build on
the coverage already in place.
From the report by UCSAF on "Coverage, Population
and Land Scan Data for Selected Wards, some ward
villages were without telecommunication services. Fig. 9
shows some of the selected wards with a bigger percentage
of the geographical area uncovered, most of which 100%
were not covered by any network which means even the
population was uncovered with more or less percentage as
shown. These villages were selected based on the total areas
uncovered by any telecommunication service at the time of
research as presented in the report. This is a serious
situation for a Tanzania that wants to graduate from a
Lower Income Country to a Middle-Income country by the
year 2025, which is expected to be achieved through ICTs
[48].
However, through strategies put forward by UCSAF
and the government the situation as far as universal access
in rural and urban-underserved areas is concerned, has
improved a lot. It is reported that currently 90 % of the
geographical areas is covered by mobile operators.
Additionally, Vietell Company limited since 2010 has built
an 18,000 km OFC (mostly as access) network all over the
country to reach those areas which were not reached. This is
adding to the 7600 km fiber built by NICTBB project.
NICTBB project set itself to connect all its regions and
districts to create a high capacity and reliable national and
international broadband infrastructure so that they have an
access to a national and regional broadband infrastructure
as well as the sea cables landing on its shores [40]. This
alone is enough to allow other initiatives to be undertaken
once the relevant infrastructure is in place. The project was
set to be implemented in 5 phases.
At the end of its 2nd phase, The NICTBB had an OFC
route length of 7560 km connecting 24 Region centers in
Tanzania Mainland, also connecting Pemba through
TANESCO cable between Tanga and Pemba.
Telecommunication operators and ISPs are able to connect
to the network, which has drastically reduced the
connection cost of most services from voice to the internet
and other services.
In its 3rd phase, the NICTBB centred on four main
components which are [40]: (i) construction of additional
OFC links to achieve a mesh OFC transmission networks;
(ii)construction of regional and district OFC transmission
networks; (iii) construction of an IP-layer of the NICTBB
and a national Internet Data Centre (IDC) facility of high
standard; and (iv) Implementation of additional Internetbased connectivity systems for the government to extend
the ongoing e-Government project such as ERNET, eSchools Network, e-HealthNet and Community Information
Centres (CICs) to local governments [45]. It was reported
that the service charges per Gigabyte (GB) had dropped by
75% from TZS 36,000 in 2009 to TZS 9,000 in 2013. A
similar drop in charges was achieved in mobile phone calls
per minute charges from TZS 147 to TZS 62 [45]. This
makes communication affordable to most of the people
where this connectivity is available.
During our research work, it was discovered that some
users (businesses and institutions) in remote, rural and
urban-underserved areas are connected to the fiber network
with huge capacity terminated within the vicinity of the
rural and urban-underserved unconnected users. This
suggests that it is possible to tap from such connectivity as a
means to utilize the links at the same time serving the users
who would never bring that connectivity to their areas on
their own due to the associated costs. It is so because the
main cost of bringing the connectivity is already paid for.
An example is the 14 km fiber link from Arusha town to the
Nelson Mandela Institution of Science and Technology
(NM-AIST), Arusha campus carrying 1Gbps capacity while
the schools and other organizations around NM-AIST are
not connected. This connectivity can be extended to
surrounding users using wireless technologies such as
MMDS, WiMAX [4], [46].
C. The Universal Communication Services Access Fund
(UCSAF)
UCSAF is one of the initiatives that was created in
Tanzania to address the access gap existing in the country
between rural and urban areas. It is a follow up on the
World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) agenda. The
idea is to subsidize investments to unprofitable rural and
urban-underserved areas, which lack incentives to investors.
Through members of parliament (MPs), it was possible to
identify 2175 villages in Tanzania for which the fund
needed to consider.
Fig 9: Geographical and population uncovered percentages for selected
wards [29].
VI. INFRASTRUCTURE READINESS
It is generally understood that infrastructure is what
drives information society such that lack of it makes the
goal of achieving an information society as stipulated in the
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ownership will be a holdup of service provision to users in
the urban-underserved and rural areas. However, with the
Public Private People's Partnership (PPPP) model proposed
in [49] as an implementation strategy for sustainable
broadband rural connectivity solution, it is possible to
mitigate such challenges due to the fact that from the very
beginning all the parties are involved so that each of the
member/parties is interested to see the projects to the end
and play part in each step where involved.
NICTP-2016 [8] a daydream. One of the policy statement
states on ICT infrastructure that:
"The Government will ensure that a reliable state of
the art ICT infrastructure, of adequate capacity, highspeed and countrywide coverage is developed".
This policy statement has been a motivation for the
Government of Tanzania to construct the OFC traced
NICTBB. Building such advanced network with high-speed
capacity has been described by many as "the great
infrastructure challenge of the 21st century" [45].
Therefore, Tanzania is one of the countries that has
addressed that challenge by building the state of art
NICTBB with Points of Presence (PoPs) at all regional and
district headquarters. This network provides connectivity to
the international infrastructure through the four
International submarine cables: SEACOM, EASSy, SEAs
and TEAMS providing an abundant bandwidth, fast and
affordable broadband connectivity to the country [11].
In addition to the OFC infrastructure covering the
whole country at district level, there are other private
mobile and fibre networks available in the county owned by
telecommunications operators and various organisations
such as the Tanzania Electric Supply Company
(TANESCO) and Ministry of Water (MoW), which are
currently being used in combination with the public
networks in various socio-economic development projects.
Example: the Bunda-Mugumu access network is being
provided through an OFC installed by TANESCO with the
fibres carried in the ground wire known as optical power
ground wire (OPGW) along the 33 kV power line (for
supervision, control and data acquisition purposes) and the
Wami-Chalinze network project through the MoW optic
fibre network (a water flow monitoring and accounting
systems) [14, 22, 23].
Additionally, the Government of Tanzania through its
Ministry of Communication, Science, and Technology
(MCST) envisions a knowledge-based Tanzanian society
with the capacity and capability to harness Science,
Technology, and Innovation for the transformation of the
economy that is sustainable and globally competitive. With
this vision, it is clear that ICTs can facilitate reaching the
majority (about 75%) of Tanzanians living in rural areas to
be part of this vision. This is why the Government charged
the Ministry to construct the NICTBB as a means to solve
the issue of telecommunication infrastructure [40].
In line with this, the NICTP-2016 emphasizes
ensuring all installed ICT infrastructure and capacity is
utilized effectively and contributes to resilience and
redundancy. Therefore there is a need for a plan on how to
utilize all installed capacity such as the NICTBB and the
UCSAF projects to achieve the learned society as stipulated
in Tanzania Vision 2025, in which case digital divide in
different geographical locations is minimized if not
eliminated.
However, the ICT Infrastructure is associated with the
availability of other essential services/ infrastructure such as
electricity supply, roads and other basic economic services
and social necessities; meaning that any solution to achieve
connectivity in such areas needs to consider presence or
absence of such services.
Even after all necessary ICT infrastructure has been in
place still willingness and readiness, leadership and
VII. POLICY READINESS
Various Tanzania policies, regulations, and national
strategic plans recognize the importance of broadband
connectivity either through, set regulations and frameworks,
encouraging best ways for broadband connectivity or
encouraging ICTs in various sectors in the country.
Tanzania does not have a Broadband policy which should
be a vital part of broader ICT policy strategies [50], like its
neighboring country Kenya and the rest of developed
countries. However, the available policies, regulations,
strategies and frameworks are sufficient to allow broadband
connectivity reach every citizen. For instance, the National
ICT policy of 2016 (NICTP-2016) envisions:
“Tanzania with economically, socially and
culturally enriched people in ICT-enabled
knowledge society”.
This policy targets specifically broadband connectivity
through policy statements:
The government will [8]:
i. Ensure conducive environment for collaboration
of public and private sector in exploring various
means of financing access to broadband
services;
ii. Ensure availability and accessibility of reliable
and affordable broadband services countrywide.
All of these focus on bridging the digital divide
through the Universal Communication Services Access
Fund (UCSAF) which has started with the provision of
voice services to rural and urban-underserved areas.
Notably, the Electronic and Postal Communications
Act (EPOCA) of 2010 regulates the co-location and sharing
of network facilities as a means to bring down the access
charges among providers so that many people can access
the services. This has allowed for the successful
implementation of spectrum sharing as means to effectively
utilize the scarce resource.
In the ITU/UNESCO broadband report of 2013,
Tanzania is listed among the countries that have broadband
plans [41]. This is due to the implementation of the
National ICT Broadband Backbone that is intended to
provide high-speed connectivity to the whole country.
Therefore, Tanzania is ready to provide and promote
the provision of universal access to broadband services
countrywide through both private mobile broadband
projects (Mobile operators), Private-Public Projects (PPP)
and other initiatives as the policy environment is in support
of the same.
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VIII.
CONCLUSIONS
[19]
In this paper, we have discussed models available for
last mile connectivity, infrastructure, policy readiness and
initiatives focusing on rural connectivity in Tanzania. It has
been noted that, although Tanzania has no specific
broadband policy, the current national strategies and ICT
policy and other frameworks are sufficient to bring
broadband services to rural and urban-underserved areas.
We find that the infrastructure is to some extent satisfactory
if utilization of available private and public networks are
extended to rural and urban-underserved areas. Other
factors such as ownership and public-private people’s
partnership programs need to be considered.
Therefore, to achieve the universal access in Tanzania
in terms of broadband connectivity we recommend the
establishment of business models that will allow small scale
entrepreneurs available in rural areas to provide services at
a scale sufficient for the area and for the capital available.
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
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