International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 7, November 2013

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Assessing the Economic Benefits and

Challenges of Tanzanias National ICT
Broadband Backbone (NICTBB)
S.M. Pazi1 , C.R. Chatwin2
Department of ICT Business Solutions Development, Institute of Finance Management
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
1

Industrial Informatics Research Group, Department of Engineering and Design, School of Engineering and
Informatics, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QT
2

pazi@ifm.ac.tz; 2c.r.chatwin@sussex.ac.uk

Abstract
The vision of the Tanzanian national ICT policy is for
Tanzania to become a hub of ICT infrastructure and ICT
solutions
that
enhance
sustainable
socio-economic
development and accelerate poverty reduction both
nationally and globally. To achieve this, Tanzanian National
ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) is being constructed
using optical fibre technology that will connect all its regions
and districts, giving them access to the 10,000 km-length
national and regional broadband infrastructure as well as to
the undersea fibre cables landing on its shores. Innovations
in broadband backbone coupled with optical fiber
technology have lowered the costs of providing ICT services
to virtually any location, for example from an inner-city
neighborhood to a rural village or to remote areas in other
places of the world. In this study, quantitative and
qualitative research have been applied to analyze data
obtained from interviews, questionnaires and publications in
order to assess the economic benefits and challenges of
NICTBB since it became operational. Despite the economic
benefits of NICTBB, the study found that there is still a role
for the Tanzanian government to provide last mile
connectivity solutions for rural areas to enable people to
access the internet via the NICTBB, as well as to educate
them on how to exploit and use broadband for economic
development. Since constructing the NICTBB is only the first
step toward realizing the potential benefits from broadband
access, government should now ensure that it is accessible
and affordable to rural area people so that majority of
Tanzanians can be effective in utilizing the backbone in their
daily activities, thereby enhancing economic development.
Keywords
National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB); Optical Fibre
DWDM; SONET/SDH; Internet Services; E-services

Introduction
Tanzania is constructing a National ICT Broadband
Backbone (NICTBB) by utilising optical fibre technology

that will connect all its regions and districts, giving

them access to the 10,000 km-length national and
regional broadband infrastructure, as well as to the
international submarines fibre optic cables (EASSY &
SEACOM) for global connectivity. The implementation
of the NICTBB is a part of Tanzanias National ICT
Policy (URT, 2003) developed in 2003 and then also
acknowledged by the Government of Tanzania in the
National Development Vision 2025, for its importance
in enabling ICTs to accelerate achievement of the goals
and objectives of the National Development Vision
2025: National Economic Growth and Poverty
Reduction Strategy. The philosophy is for Tanzania to
become a hub of ICT infrastructure and have a
sustainable ICT infrastructure that will provide higher
capacity and ICT services such as Internet, voice,
videos and other multimedia interactions at an
affordable cost to the majority of the people in the
urban and rural areas of Tanzania. With this
perspective, NICTBB was initiated to begin with Phase
1 that initially started in Feb 2009 and was completed
in June 2010. NICTBB is divided into four phases (1-4);
Phase 1 initially started in Feb 2009 and was completed
in June 2010, while phase 2 started in August 2010 and
was completed in March 2012 (Pazi et al, 2013). Phase 1
and 2 provide 7,560 km of optical fibre cable that have
been connected to 21 regional and some district towns.
Phases 3 and 4 will connect all Tanzanian districts and
villages, respectively. The total proposed optical fibre
cables for the NICTBB is 10,000 km, which constitutes
three rings; Northern, Southern and Western optical
fibre rings (Pazi et al, 2013) (See figure 1 below).
NICTBB is land locked with neighboring countries i.e.
Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique
and is currently connected to two submarine cables

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International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 7, November 2013

(SEACOM AND EASSY cable) to provide international

connectivity, as per figure 2.

FIGURE 1TANZANIA NATIONAL ICT BROADBAND NETWORK

FIGURE 2 AFRICAN UNDERSEA OPTICAL FIBRE CABLES

The National ICT broadband backbone (NICTBB) is

implemented using three technologies: Dense wavelength
division multiplexing (DWDM), Synchronous digital
hierarchy (SDH) and Internet protocol (IP) (Pazi, 2009;
Pazi et al, 2013). This means that NICTBB consists of
three layers: physical media layer (duct fiber), an
optical layer (DWDM), and a client layer (SDH and IP).
The optical layer is sandwiched between the lower

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physical media layer and upper client layer. The

optical layer performs several functions, such as
multiplexing wavelengths, switching and routing
wavelengths, and monitoring network performance at
various levels in the backbone. The optical layer is
normally decomposed into three sub-layers: an optical
channel (OCh-P) layer, an optical multiplex section
(OMS) layer, and an optical transmission section (OTS)
layer. The function of the optical channel layer is to
provide end-to-end networking of optical wavelength
channels to transparently convey the signal into client
layers. The optical multiplex layer concerns
networking of aggregate multi-wavelength optical
signals. The optical transmission layer concerns the
transmission of optical signals on optical fibre cable
(Pazi et al, 2009). The DWDM network incorporated
into NICTBB supports 40 wavelengths per fibre and
each wavelength carries 10 Gb/s (Pazi et al, 2013); thus
enabling a single fibre to carry four hundred gigabits
of information. SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy)
transmits high-speed data streams of various
bandwidth capacity to the backbone e.g. STM-1 (155
Mb/s), STM-4 (622 Mb/s), STM-16 (2.4 Gb/s), and STM64 (10 Gb/s) by the use of a time division multiplexing
(TDM) scheme. In this way, SDH is customized into
NICTBB to transmit standard interfaces for STM-1,
STM-4, STM-16 and STM-64 direct to the service
operators. NITBB has adapted the transmission of IP
over SDH over DWDM, in which IP packets (i.e.
Internet traffic) are encapsulated and then transmitted
by a router with either fast Ethernet (FE) or a giga
Ethernet (GE) port directly over SDH then to the
DWDM optical layer (Pazi et al, 2013). The SDH
network provides end-to-end services and an efficient
mechanism to multiplex/demultiplex lower-speed
connections into service operators or from the DWDM
network respectively. For example, low-speed Internet
traffic of 2 MB/s can be multiplexed/demultiplexed into
or from a 10 GB/s data stream respectively over the
DWDM network (Pazi et al, 2013). Moreover, the
protection mechanisms employed in SDH networks
ensures that the service is restored immediately in the
event of failures. The key network element of SDH is
add/drop multiplexers (ADM). Hence, the SDH ADM
operates as the regional network distributors, and is
normally installed at the edge of the DWDM network
for grooming traffic at the low bit rates to ensure that
transmission is cost effective. In this context, the
DWDM network takes the standard data signal
directly from either SDH or IP and converts each data
signal to a wavelength channel (Pazi et al, 2009; Pazi et
al, 2013). These channels are then combined and

International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 7, November 2013

transmitted onto a fibreoptic cable. At the telecomm

operators, the reverse process takes place; and
wavelength channels are converted directly to SDH or
IP data signals (STMx, FE or GE) (Pazi et al, 2013).
NICTBB operates as the wholesale business
concentrating on large capacity interfaces of STMx to
service operators. NICTBB is managed and operated
by the Tanzania Telecommunications Company
Limited (TTCL) on behalf of the Government of United
Republic of Tanzania through the Ministry of
Communication Science and Technology (MCST). The
telecomm operators connected into NICTBB acquire
STMx from NICTBB and resell them to Internet service
providers who provide Internet services to consumers.
These service operators in Tanzania who have been
connected to NICTBB are TTCL; Airtel; Tigo; Zantel
and Simbanet. With this approach, users access the
Internet through service operators who are in turn
connected internationally through submarine optical
cable. NICTBB represents the beginning of a new era of
connectivity for the Tanzanians, promising greater
international bandwidth, more reliable connectivity
and sustainable economic development. However,
there are significant requirements to be addressed to
sustain ICT services particularly in rural or
underserved areas. For example, (Artulo and Juan,
2010) revealed that the inherent characteristics of the
low demand from rural areas with low purchasing
power, poor electrical power supplies and small capital
income impede the last mile connectivity to the
backbone. In addition, (ITU, 2007) noted that Internet
access is not just about availability but the cost
effective usage. The high cost of Internet access is still a
barrier for people living in rural areas due to their low
income, despite the governments efforts to push down
the bandwidth costs. This is in parallel with (Sheriff,
2009) who revealed that the biggest and most
fundamental factor limiting Internet access in Tanzania
is affordability, in which he stated that the cost of
communication services remains comparatively higher
than rates enjoyed in so-called developed markets.
Contrary to this, the cost of mobile services has fallen
considerably since its introduction to Tanzania in 1995.
Although interconnection fees, taxes and import duties
still hamper the cost of such services due to 20%
import duty, 20% VAT and 7% excise tax for telecoms
equipment added to mobile subscription costs, they are
still very popular. The economic benefits from the
Tanzanian national ICT broadband backbone have not
yet been fully optimised. Therefore this paper aims to
understand the gaps by examining economic benefits
and challenges following construction of the

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Tanzanian national ICT broadband backbone.

Related Literature
The explosive growth of the Internet and bandwidth
intensive applications such as video-on-demand (for
example, a movie located at some remote site is
selected and watched online) and multimedia
conferencing (which requires setting up high
bandwidth connections between different users, for
virtual meetings, and guaranteeing the desired qualityof-service (QoS) levels, low latency, and reasonable
packet loss rate for the virtual meeting) require high
speed ICT broadband backbones such as an optical
network to provide high bandwidth. Optical networks
are lightwave systems that use high frequencies (100
THz) in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic
spectrum, and employ optical fibres for data
transmission (Agrawal, 1997; Mukherjee, 1997;
Ramaswami and Sivarajan, 2002; Kaminow and Li,
2002). Optical fibre technology provides vast amounts
of information for every resident, as well as access to
schools, universities, hospitals and community centres.
An optical network uses optical fibres for data
transmission; which is more secure than other data
transmission systems e.g., satellites which suffer from
tapping (as light does not radiate from the fibre, it is
nearly impossible to tap into it without detection). It is
also immune to interference and crosstalk. The optical
fibre also has potentially limitless capability, huge
bandwidth (nearly 50 terabits per second) (Tb/s), low
signal loss (as low as 0.2 dB/km, low signal distortion,
lower power requirement, low material usage, small
space requirement and it is secure. The first-generation
optical networks (i.e. SONET/SDH) used optical fibre
as a replacement for copper cable to get higher
capacities, as well as to provide lower bit error rates
(Ramaswami and Sivarajan, 2002). SONET is the
optical network technology used to transmit highspeed data streams in North America. A similar
standard to SONET but which has been adopted in
Europe, Japan and in developing countries is called
SDH. SONET/SDH employs a TDM multiplexing
scheme. The basic transmission rate defined in the
SDH is 155.52 Mb/s abbreviated to 155 Mb/s and is
known as a synchronous transport module level 1
signal or simply STM-1 (Ramaswami and Sivarajan,
2002). Higher rates of STM-4 (622 Mb/s), STM-16 (2.4
Gb/s), STM-64 (10 Gb/s), STM-256 (40 Gb/s) are also
defined by ITU-T [15]. In SONET the lower rate of
51.84 Mb/s forms the first level signal STS-1. SONET
hierarchy uses the term synchronous transport signal

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International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 7, November 2013

(STS) to define the equivalent of an STM signal (Note

that an STS is an electrical signal). The optical
interfaces corresponding to the STS-1 rate is called OC1 (optical carrier-1), and similar optical interfaces have
been defined for OC-3, OC-12, OC-48, OC-192, and
OC-768 corresponding to the STS-3, STS-12, STS-48,
STS-192, and STS-768 signals. The SDH and SONET
data rates are compatible; and an STM-1 data stream is
equivalent to an STS-3/OC-3 stream. The second
generation of optical network technology called the
wavelength division-multiplexing (WDM) network
(Agrawal, 1997; Mukherjee, 1997Ramaswami and
Sivarajan, 2002; Kaminow and Li, 2002) began with
wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), which arose
to provide additional capacity on SONET/SDH
networks. The term WDM was once used to signify the
use of 2 wavelengths per fibre; nowadays, it is used to
refer to more than one hundred wavelength channels
per fibre (Agrawal, 1997; Mukherjee, 1997Ramaswami
and Sivarajan, 2002; Kaminow and Li, 2002). A secondgeneration of optical network technology (i.e. DWDM
networks) incorporates the routing and switching
functions into the optical layer that is performed by
electronics in SONET/SDH networks (Ramaswami and
Sivarajan, 2002). DWDM networks provide enormous
bandwidth with minimum costs compared to
SONET/SDH networks (Pazi et al, 2010). DWDM
provides virtual fibres, in the sense which makes a
single fibre look like multiple virtual fibres, with
each virtual fibre carrying a wavelength channel. A
DWDM network multiplexes many wavelength
channels and is capable of providing data capacity in
excess of hundreds of gigabits per second over
thousands of kilometers in a single mode fibre (Pazi et
al, 2008; Pazi et al, 2009). In addition, DWDM networks
can support more than 100 wavelengths per fibre, thus
enabling a single fibre to carry several terabits of
information. DWDM network provides many benefits
such as scalability capacity, transparency, and
survivability (Ferreira et al, 2002). Optical DWDM
networks have revolutionized long distance data
transport and have resulted in high capacity data
highways, cost reductions, extremely low bit error rate,
and operational simplification of the overall ICT
broadband backbone (Ferreira et al, 2002; Saleh, 2003;
Chan, 2006; Zhu, 2003; Sengupta, 2003; Livas, 2005;
Ruffin et al, 2008; Pazi et al, 2010). In this regard,
DWDM networks have gained strong support for ICT
broadband backbone solutions and are capable of
delivering high bandwidth in a flexible manner where
and when needed rather than other telecommunication

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network technology. ICT Broadband backbone is a key

driver of economic growth, providing a boost of 1.38
percentage points in GDP growth in developing
countries, for every 10-percentage-point rise in
penetration (World Bank, 2009). Indeed, investment in
ICT broadband also has the potential to deliver social
benefits, for example by improving public service
levels in areas such as health, education, e-government,
and democratic participation at lower cost than would
be available offline (Bilbao-Osorio et al, 2013).
Furthermore, an analysis for the European Commission
estimates that broadband can create more than two
million jobs in Europe by 2015, and an increase in GDP
of at least EUR 636 billion (ITU/UNESCO, 2011).
Similarly, a study in Brazil reported that broadband
added up to 1.4% to the employment growth rate
(Inter-American Development Bank, 2009). In China,
every 10% increase in broadband penetration is seen as
contributing of an additional 2.5% to GDP growth
(Value Partners, 2009). In Thailand, where in 2010 only
some 3% of households had broadband and 12% of
individuals, it has nevertheless been forecasted that if
broadband is promoted, it could add 2.4% per cent to
the countrys GDP growth rate (Digital Divide Institute,
2010). Similarly, a study by Booz & Company (2009)
found that 10% higher broadband penetration in a
specific year is correlated with 1.5% greater labour
productivity growth over the following five years.
This article also suggests that countries in the top tier
of broadband penetration have exhibited 2% higher
GDP growth than countries in the bottom
tier.Another study by McKinsey (2009) estimated that
a 10% increase in broadband household penetration
delivers a boost to a countrys GDP that ranges from
0.1 percent to 1.4 percent. Similarly, research by
Kowero (2012) found that a fiber broadband backbone
leads to a significant annual increase in gross value
added (GVA) and creation of jobs through business
startups and improved business performance in rural
areas, towns and cities in the UK. Also another report
by McKinsey (2009) published that additional GBP 5
billion investments in broadband networks in the UK
would create or retain an estimated 280,500 UK jobs for
a year. Optical fibre technology has the potential to
provide many additional benefits in terms of cost and
performance over any other communications network
technology. For example, the construction of the
Kenyan backbone by the use of optical DWDM
technology has ended the countrys reliance on limited
and expensive bandwidth from Satellite technology. It
also has revolutionized the countrys internet and

International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 7, November 2013

broadband sector and reduced the wholesale

bandwidth prices by more than 90% (Kowero, 2012).
On the other hand, the construction of the Rwandan
national fibre backbone has gradually reduced the
international bandwidth charges from USD 2,500 per
Mbps before 2009 to USD125 per Mbps in 2012; this
cost will fall further as the number of subscribers
increases (Newtimes, 2013).
Methodology
A survey research design was adopted in this study to
enable generalization of the findings. A structured
questionnaire was distributed to households/
individuals who live in several rural areas in Tanzania
where Internet is accessed though NICTBB connections,
so as to assess the challenges and potential economic
benefits of national ICT broadband backbone since
becoming operational. Unstructured interviews were
used to collect primary data from senior officers in
public and private organizations to find the benefits of
using internet through NICTBB connections. In
addition to the questionnaires and the unstructured
interviews, a review of the literature from the above
organizations and other sources, for example:
newspapers, ICT journals, copies of letters, minutes,
meetings and websites, as well as observation from site
visits was undertaken to supplement information
collected through interviews. A purposive sampling
technique has been applied to select senior officers
from various public and private organizations for
interviews. While an accidental sampling technique
was used to select households/individuals from rural
areas who were willing to participate in this survey.
Quantitative and qualitative data analysis using MS
excel and Atlas.ti respectively was applied in this
study to analyze primary and secondary data.

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reduction. Accordingly, the cost of mobile internet

services and accessing wired Internet services has also
declined by approximately 40 per cent (Pazi and
Chatwin, 2013). Internet bandwidth cost per annum for
leasing a STMx has also reduced by more than thirty
percent (30%) in 2012) (Pazi et al, 2013). From this
perspective, the internet penetration rate was increased
from 1.3% in 2008 to approximately 12% in 2012, as
indicated in ITU Internet statistics (IWS, 2013) as per
table 1 and figure 3 below. Table 1 shows the
penetration trend since year 2000. However, Tanzanian
penetrations compared to other East African countries
such as Kenya and Uganda are still low, since Kenya
and Uganda penetration rates stand at 28% and 13%
respectively (IWS, 2013), as per figure 4 below.
TABLE 1 TANZANIA INTERNET USAGE (SOURCE, IWS)

Year
2000
2002
2005
2009
2011
2012

Users
50,000
500,000
820,000
520,000
4,932,535
5,629,532

% Penetrations
0.3 %
3.6 %
6.7 %
1.3 %
11.5 %
12 %

FIGURE 3 TANZANIAN INTERNET PENETRATION RATE (%)

Findings
Following thorough analysis of the primary and
secondary data by using quantitative and qualitative
methods, it was found that Tanzanias Internet sector
has remained underdeveloped due to the limited reach
of the traditional fixed-line networks and the lack of
international fiber connections until the construction of
NICTBB took place with its connection to the
international submarine optical fiber cable via the
SEACOM and the Eastern African Sub-Marine cable
System (EASSy) in July 2009. This has resulted in the
international bandwidth cost being reduced from
$1,500 per Mbps to $180 per Mbps (Stefanotti, 2010),
which is equivalent to an eighty eight percent [88%]

FIGURE 4 INTERNET PENETRATION RATE FOR TANZANIA,

KENYA AND UGANDA

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International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 7, November 2013

Similarly, the Mobile network subscribers penetration

has grown dramatically since its establishment in
Tanzania. The mobile sector has resulted in growth of
mobile phone users from less than 100,000 users in late
1990s to about 27,598,689 million users in March, 2013
(TCRA, 2013), which translates to around 61% of
teledensity (penetrations), as per table 2 and figure 5
below. Table 2 also shows the mobile penetrations rate
since 2005. The major mobile operators are Vodacom,
Zain, TiGO and TTCL-mobile, Zantel-mobile and
Sasatel. Mobile phones are the only ICT service, which
have good market penetration in rural areas.
TABLE 2 MOBILE SUBSCRIPTIONS AND TELE-DENSITY (SOURCE, TCRA)

Year
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013 (March)

Users
2,963,737
5,614,922
8,486,126
13,130,602
17,642,408
21,158,364
25,827,518
27,627,156
27,598,689

% Penetrations
10%
15%
21%
32%
43%
50%
59%
61%
61%

FIGURE 5 TANZANIAN MOBILE PENETRATION RATE (%)

TABLE 3 FIXED SUBSCRIPTIONS AND TELE-DENSITY (SOURCE, TCRA)

Year
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013 (March)

Users
154,420
152,644
163,269
123,809
172,922
174,511
161,063
176,367
169,786

% Penetrations
0.52%
0.41%
0.40%
0.30%
0.42%
0.41%
0.36%
0.39%
0.38%

The penetration of fixed-line (telephone) does not seem

to grow exponentially as shown in table 3 and figure 6.
Two government telecoms operators (TTCL and Zantel)
provide fixed Telephone lines. This shows that most
users prefer to use mobile phones to access the internet
instead of wired or wireless infrastructure technology
due to the sparse availability of these technologies, as
well as the higher costs of purchasing equipment and
internet connection charges.
Creation of New ICT Services and Products
The increase of ICT penetration rate as discussed above
has facilitated the creation of new business services
and products i.e. Mobile data and 3G broadband
services have been launched by mobile operators since
the commencement of NICTBB. Mobile voice services
offered are Bongo Phone, Prepaid Services, Prepaid
Calling Card, Post Paid Services, Rafiki Public Phone,
and TTCL Mobile (TTCL, 2013). These services have
made mobile operators leading players in the voice
and data services including the Internet. In addition,
other Internet services that have been established are
wireless broadband; Mobile Internet; and Virtual
Private Network (VPN) that provides secured and
dedicated end-to-end data connectivity to multiple
sites in different geographical locations with scalable
and guaranteed bandwidths of 64 Kbps to 100 Mbps.
In addition, video conferencing services have been
used through NICTBB connections by various
government organizations such as Tanzania Global
Learning Agency (TaGLA) to conduct online courses,
seminars, workshops, meetings and interviews.
Provision of E-services

FIGURE 6 TANZANIAN FIXED-LINE PENETRATIONS RATE (%)

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The bandwidth capacity of NICTBB has provided and

sustained the delivery of e- services such as e-money,
e-commerce, e-banking, e-education and e-government,
e-health, e-business, e-tourism and e-agricultural (Pazi
and Chatwin, 2013). For example, the majority of
Tanzanians nowadays, especially living in urban areas,
can afford wireless devices such as mobile phones or
smart phone/tablets to make cheap calls, send SMS,

International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 7, November 2013

access Internet services or use m-facilities such as emoney/m-banking provided by mobile operators to
send or transfer money. The same as the use of e-health,
Tanzania Telecommunication Limited (TTCL) in
collaboration with Kilimanjaro Christian Medical
Centre and Bugando hospital are offering telemedicine
services through NICTBB, whereby sound and pictures
of the patient are being sent to experts in other parts of
the world for further analysis without the patient being
physically transferred to these places (Guardian, 2013).
This has cut down the patient costs for treatment and
travelling to hospitals abroad, etc. Similarly, diagnosis
and prescription are done electronically saving
transport costs for patients/doctors to travel from their
premises or working places to meet the patients or the
doctors respectively. In addition, the use of eeducation has facilitated access to learning and
teaching materials, and facilitated online classes. This
has reduced administrative costs and increased work
efficiency by deploying fewer teachers for attending a
big number of students seated in different locations all
at one time. Furthermore, e-banking has helped
customers to be proactive at their workplace instead of
wasting travelling time and costs to their respective
bank or company to check balances or pay bills; and
these services can now be provided electronically.
Creation of New Business and Jobs
The operation of NICTBB has also opened doors for
new businesses to be created in order to support these
new ICT services. For example, several new businesses
and jobs have been created to cope with new ICT
services such as e-banking, e-business, e-money, mbanking, e-education. As well, small and medium
entrepreneurs (SMEs) in rural and urban areas have
been established to provide e-money facilities such as
Tigo pesa, M-pesa, Airtel money, etc for customers. In
addition, several local web host companies have been
created to provide cloud computing services in
Tanzania. Likewise, NICTBB has also increased
employment opportunities in Tanzania. For example,
several workers were recruited to form an NICTBB
unit within TTCL to deal with daily activity of the
backbone i.e. Administration, Business, Marketing,
Technical operations, etc. Furthermore, several
workers including the chief executives officer (CEO)
were employed in the E-Government agency to
administer and run the daily activities of the agency.
Enhanced Work Productivity and Efficiency
Besides the economic benefits indicated above, the

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deployment of NICTBB has enhanced work

productivity and efficiency, thereby increasing the
revenue collection by using M-facilities such i.e. emoney and m-banking (Pazi and Chatwin, 2013). The
undergraduate admissions process in many academic
institutions have been improved by using the Tanzania
Commission of Universities (TCU) Central Admission
System (CAS), whereby interested students apply
online via mobile phones or computer using the
system rather than physically visiting the institute in
which they want to study. In addition, the Tanzania
National council of examination (NACTE) has
increased its efficiency in publishing examination
results for primary school (Grade 7), and Secondary
school O and A level results by going online
following its connection to the NICTBB. The use of egovernment service has also facilitated the
implementation of a full budgeting, accounting and
fiscal control system that has underpinned
significantly improved fiscal management by helping
the country to curb unbudgeted commitments and
expenditures and address the demands of its
development partners. Additionally, the use of the
Human Capital Management Information system
(HCMIS) in (MDAs), LGAs and other government
institutions in Tanzania has enhanced the speed of
recruitment, evaluation and payroll processing for
government employees.
Overseas Trades
The virtual landing stations of the submarine cables
through the NICTBB to cross-border points of Rwanda
(at Rusumo station), Uganda (Mtukula station),
Malawi (Kasumulo station), Zambia (Tunduma station)
and Kenya (Namanga, Sirari and Horohoro stations)
has resulted in overseas trades in communication
services between Tanzania and neighbouring countries.
Challenges
In contrast to the economic benefits indicated above,
there are several challenges that need to be addressed
so that NICTBB is fully utilized to its potential capacity.
For example, one major impediment is still the lastmile connectivity especially in semi-urban or rural
areas, where the majority of people live [26]; this is
despite the Tanzanian governments efforts to allocate
funds so that universal access services are deployed in
rural areas and other underserved areas in Tanzania.
NICTBB is not deployed in semi-urban or rural areas
due to the high capital investment and operation costs
of the optical fibre networks. In addition, alternative

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International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 7, November 2013

last mile connectivity technologies such as wireless or

fixed wireless networks are still scarce in semi-urban
or rural areas, since telecommunication service
operators are less attracted to invest due to the
uncertainty of profits. Accordingly, Internet services in
semi-urban or rural areas are still accessible through
VSAT connections which are unaffordable for the
majority of users who live in those areas. Another
challenge is regulation of Internet services; and this is
not yet formulated well in Tanzania. As a result ISPs
take advantage by charging customers a high price to
access Internet bandwidth, which becomes unrealistic
and unaffordable to many Tanzanians especially those
living in rural areas due to their low income. Also, the
large costs for purchasing various Internet connection
equipment or devices i.e. wired Internet leased lines,
cable modem, wireless modem or laptop/computers
are prohibitive due to the added VAT and tax, which
creates another obstacle that limits users who cannot
afford these equipment/devices, which they need to
access the Internet through NICTBB. Another barrier
for not utilizing NICTBB to its fully capacity is the lack
of adequate and well designed guidelines and
strategies for bandwidth utilization. As a result, most
users are not aware of the importance and benefits of
utilizing the broadband backbone. Well designed
guidelines would facilitate a conducive ICT
environment that stimulates demand for the users to
make effective use of the broadband backbone to
access relevant ICT services provided online. Also
government institutions should serve as an anchor user
for broadband backbone and migrate their own
services and local content so as to drive market
demand for ICT applications that are available online.
Additionally, as the wider use of the data accessible
online through NICTBB become more transparent and
open, it will bring new challenges, not least the need
for the backbone to become more robust and resilient,
and for ICT services to become more reliable. Issues of
cyber security and data protection will come to the fore
of NICTBB as security and trust become increasingly
important in order to protect the data provided online.
Another major obstacle NICTBB faces is poor electrical
power supply infrastructure that causes power outages
in the whole country. Continuous power interruption
limits the use of computer or internet connections as all
the electronic equipment is powered up using
electricity. Efficient power supply can only be
guaranteed by power generators. However, it is very
expensive to own generators due to the large
acquisition costs, as well as operational costs as fuel is

124

very expensive; which is a barrier to using computers

to access the internet through NICTBB, especially for
the rural areas population.
Conclusions
The deployment of the NICTBB and its connections to
submarine optical fibres has resulted in the reduction
of internet bandwidth costs including international
costs. Accordingly, the ICT broadband penetration rate
for Internet, fixed and mobile network subscriptions
have been dramatically increased. This in turn has
resulted in the creation of new ICT services and
products such as mobile Internet and voice services,
which have been launched since the commissioning of
the NICTBB. The delivery of e- services such as emoney, e-commerce, e-banking, e-education and egovernment, e-health, e-business, e-tourism and eagricultural has also become active since the
commencement of the NICTBB. In addition, the
operation of the NICTBB has opened doors for creation
of new businesses and jobs as more ICT services and
products have been established. In addition, the
NICTBB has enhanced work productivity and
efficiency in private and government organizations
through the use of automated business services.
Furthermore, it has expanded its international market
trade by connecting with its neighboring African
countries. There are many positive economic benefits
from the NICTBB, nevertheless, several challenges
remain, such as, last-mile connectivity in semi-urban
and rural areas; an internet services regulation
framework; lack of adequate and well designed
guidelines and strategies for bandwidth utilization of
the NICTBB; cyber security; and poor electrical power
supply infrastructure. All this must be addressed
explicitly before NICTBB is fully and effectively
utilized. Therefore, more activity by the Tanzanian
government is needed to find last mile connectivity
solutions for rural area people to link into the NICTBB,
as well as to educate people on how to exploit and use
broadband for economic development. Internet
connection equipment or devices and internet
bandwidth tariffs should be subsidised further by the
government so that the majority of the semi-urban and
rural areas people can afford the internet service. Since
the broadband backbone is like a pipe that represents a
well-known application for which market demand has
been amply proven; which is a low risk strategy. In this
regard, providing the infrastructure is only the first
step towards realizing the potential benefits from
broadband access but more government efforts are

International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 7, November 2013

required to make sure that the NICTBB is accessible

and affordable to every Tanzanian. This way the
NICTBB in Tanzania will be an engine of growth as it
will be embedded into the daily activities of people,
whether in agriculture, education, financial, health or
delivery of public services.

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Dr. S.M.Pazi is currently works with the Institute of Finance
Management (IFM) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His research
interests include concepts, modeling, performance and
economic aspects of optical DWDM networks with an
emphasis on ICT broadband backbones.
Prof.C.R.Chatwin-FIET, MBCS, FIMechE, FInstP, EurIng,
FRSA, MIEEE, CEng, CPhys, is Director of the Industrial
Informatics research group at Sussex University. He has
published 174 journal-papers and 269 conference-papers, 16
book-chapters, 2 books. During the last 15 years, he has
attracted more than 14 million USD in research grant
funding. His research completed and on-going is in fibre
optic communications, sensor networks, SOA middleware
design & implementation, goods track and trace,
interoperability in the business and the health sector, mobile
biometrics, embedded electronics. His research has been
exploited in three spin-out companies.