The Minister for Infrastructure Development, Basil Mramba, told TTCL management that they should set up a think tank to conduct research and incorporate TTCL staff and private sector players to analyse the phases involved in implementing the fibre optic cable project.

"The infrastructure already exists and you should exploit it,” said Mr Mramba, warning that fresh efforts to implement the project would result in wastage of funds and the project could suffer from rapid technological changes.

He urged the firm to take into consideration the impact of new technology on the current National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction, and to share the benefits of new technology with the rural population.

Three firms, the Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority, (Tazara), the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) and Songas, own fibre-optic cables and including these networks in the national project would save TTCL money. Analysts predict that by linking the networks of Tanesco, Songas and TRC as well as the communications capacity of Tazara, Tanzania will have enough fibre to cover the country and the network could be linked to countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.

A national committee last year started working on the project known as National ICT Backbone for Tanzania, with a Chinese company – the Chinese International Telecommunications Contracting Corporation (CITCC) – involved in designing the network. The Zanzibar Telecommunications Company (Zantel) is also aspiring to be a major participator in the implementation of the project, which started in 2001.

Earlier in 2005, Zantel convened a meeting of Tanzanian companies with excess fibre optic transmission capacity and invited the Rwanda Telecommunications Company to discuss possibilities of linking to Rwanda, so that traffic from Rwanda can be routed through the network and transmitted through the Zantel gateway in Zanzibar. The project is to be linked up to the planned East Africa Submarine Cable System, a $230 million project.

Source: The East African - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News