03 May 2023

Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) has signed a partnership agreement with the local subsidiary of Huawei. The contract aims to extend the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) to 23 districts in the country at a cost of 37.3 billion Tanzanian shillings.

The project is scheduled to be completed within six months from the date of signature. It will add an additional 1,520km to the high-speed ICT backbone.
The signing of this new agreement comes shortly after Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan recommended that TTCL, having ‘failed’ as a mobile operator, focus on providing broadband services.

This project is accelerating the plan to deploy a high-speed information and communication technology (ICT) backbone network to improve the use of ICTs in all sectors with a view to sustainable socio-economic development. In March 2022, TTCL had already signed an agreement with Huawei for the deployment and extension of the mobile and fixed telecom network in the countryside. Later in the year, the two partners also deployed a high-speed Internet network on Mount Kilimanjaro.

“The decision to connect all districts in the country to NICTBB is part of plans to make Tanzania a communication hub in Africa,” said Nape Nnauye, minister of information, communication and information technology.