08 November 2019

Tanzania will provide high speed internet connectivity to Burundi, after a service agreement was signed in Dar es Salaam between the incumbent Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation Limited (TTCL) and Burundi Backbone Systems (BBS). 

It will be implemented over a 10-year period, said Waziri Kindamba, the general manager of the TTCL.

“ TTCL will offer first class broadband Internet services through our stations in Kabanga and Manyovu, in the border region of Kigoma,” added Kindamba, who also said the agreement allows TTCL to expand its portfolio of activities in the East Africa and Southern African Development Community (SADC) sub-region, with a population of nearly 350 million.

Beyond improving the internet in landlocked Burundi, the new internet services will also enhance the ease of local entrepreneurs to do business with those in the region.

The deal was signed days after the Tanzanian government has asked mobile operator Halotel (a local subsidiary of Vietnamese telecom group Viettel) to stop the interconnection of its fibre network in Burundi , without his approval.

The continuation of this operation would eventually lead to a serious loss of earnings for the country.