National Postal Policy 2.0 CURRENT STATUS OF THE SECTOR 2.1. The existing framework under which the postal sector is functioning was put into place with effect from January 1994 when wide ranging reform of the sector was made. Under the reforms, the roles of the various sector players were well defined and the Tanzania Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (TP & TC) was split into the following entities:i. ii. iii. The Tanzania Communications Commission (TCC), as the regulator for the communications sector; The Tanzania Posts Corporation (TPC) as the Public Postal operator; and The Tanzania Telecommunication Company Ltd. (TTCL), as the dominant telecommunications services operator. Prior to these reforms, the Tanzania Postal Bank (TPB) was established in 1992 as an independent entity operating within the TPC network on agency basis. Hitherto, the Tanzania Post Office Savings Bank was run off the TP & TC on an agency basis on behalf of the government. Currently TPC provides most of the outlets for TPB on an agency basis. 2.2. The current institutional structure of the postal sector is constituted of the Government which is responsible for policy formulation; the Regulator for licensing postal operators and overseeing compliance to licence conditions and ensuring a level playing field in the sector; postal operators for service provision and the customers as users of the postal services. The postal sector is partially liberalized whereby the Public Postal Operator (PPO) retains a reserved area in basic services while competing with other operators to provide domestic and international courier and other value added services. 2.1. The current network coverage of the Public Postal Operator stands at 430 Post Offices with an average of 79,140 inhabitants served per post office. The following comparative figures give an indication of the level of inadequacy of the Postal network in Tanzania: Ministry of Communications and Transport 3