Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) has announced its intention to sell Internet bandwidth to Burundi, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia
TTCL said it intended to sell gigabytes of Internet bandwidth as a commodity to the neighbouring countries to take advantage of the resilience of Tanzania's National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB).
Nicodemus Mngutu, marketing manager for TTCL, told Business Standard, “Now that the National ICT Backbone has reached all border points of the country, and that we have already illustrated capability by getting the US$6.7 million contract to supply 1.244 gigabytes of internet bandwidth to Rwanda for 10 years, we are eyeing more markets of the inland countries that can take advantage of our complete network.”
“As landlocked countries, Burundi, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia face significant challenges in getting access to low-cost international connectivity,” he added. “This purchase of bulk international capacity on regional and international networks will significantly boost our vision to make bandwidth available to such markets.”
In its TTCL Rwanda contract, TTCL will be expected to install, configure, test, commission and activate a temporary link with 155 megabytes bandwidth per second.
The cost of internet has been relatively high in Rwanda with users spending on average approximately RWF 30 (US$0.05) per megabyte. The Rwanda project has been aimed at lowering prices of Internet capacity as well as extending the geographical reach of broadband networks.
After Rwanda, Mozambique will be the next country to take advantage of NICTBB. The NICTBB technical coordinator Anita Chingumbe said that Mozambique was in talks with Tanzania’s National ICT Broadband Backbone that aim to get the network into the country.
