2 STATUS OF ICT IN TANZANIA T 2.1 anzania has made remarkable progress in deploying ICT. This progress has been well received by the citizens and service providers who are striving to address unmet demand and competition in newly liberalised markets. Access 2.1.1 Infrastructure Tanzania’s tele-density is low, with the number of fixed and mobile cellular lines currently standing at 12 telephone lines per 1000 people (i.e. a teledensity of 1.2) and the number of mobile phone subscribers currently stands at 81 per 10,000 inhabitants. In contrast, the City of Dar es Salaam has 5 fixed lines and 10 mobile phone subscribers per 100 people. (See Table 1) Tanzania’s Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), using fibre optic, microwave and satellite-based links, is now over 95% digital. This paves the way for allowing the provision of new services enabled by ICT. The coverage of the network infrastructure is limited to urban areas and thus lack of telecommunications and other infrastructures in the rural areas remains a basic impediment to the provision of such new ICT services. Tanzania has a liberalised broadcasting sector with some broadcasting operators spread over a vast area nationally and even regionally while others cover a local geographical area. Although at present the programme content of the television services falls short of the sentiments expressed in the Broadcasting Services Act, 1993 and consists mainly of imported material and sports coverage, this imbalance is being addressed by both the regulatory authority, and the providers of those services. 2.1.2 Internet availability The Tanzania Communications Commission (TCC) has licensed nine companies to provide public data communication services including Internet bandwidth. These data operators have isolated initiatives of connecting their Points-of-Presence (PoPs) to the global Internet backbone. As a result, Tanzania lacks cheaper and high capacity connections to the global Internet. All connections, regardless of the data service provider, are small capacity international links that connect to the global Internet backbone in different countries such as Norway and the United States. Therefore, the limited international Internet bandwidth is scarce and extremely expensive. The lack of a national Internet Exchange Point (IXP) also means that much of Tanzania’s local traffic is routed via international routes. There are presently sixteen licensed ISPs in Tanzania providing between 10,000 and 15,000 dial-up accounts in the country with many more users via Company and Government LANS and Internet cafés. Available e-readiness studies suggest that there is a large unsatisfied demand in the country for Internet access. 2.1.3 Hardware and software There is no local manufacture of ICT equipment in Tanzania; all local dealers or agents import these products. There are no standards guiding the imports of both hardware and software. Few local companies are developing computer application packages. Most of the software used by both public and private sectors is imported at considerable cost. The use of open-source software is on the lower side. Overall, Tanzania has a small emerging Page 3