Tanzania, Uganda in internet sharing deal

The government said yesterday that it was finalising the process for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to sell National ICT Backbone Infrastructure to Uganda.

Minister of Information, Communications and Information Technology Nape Nnauye told The Citizen that the government through Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) will sell the backbone to Uganda Telecommunications Company Limited.

“We have already laid down a cable network to Mtukula and we are supplying the network as a pilot study. We are currently finalising the preparations to sign the MoU,” he said.

“The country has access of various submarine cable network. So far we have four of them and we have one with average capacity of 10 terabytes per second and other is 16 tele bites per second,” he said.

Mr. Nnauye explained that due to geographical position, the government will not only sale its infrastructures to Uganda but it would also sell to other landlocked countries.

“So far eight countries, some including Rwanda, Mozambique, Kenya and Uganda will buy from us,” he said.

According to him, the biggest submarine cable that will enable them to supply infrastructure to a number of countries is the 180 tele bites per second which was recently launched by President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

Earlier, Ugandan Minister for ICT and National Guidance Dr Chris Baryomunsi, through a Ugandan media outlet, stressed that they have hooked the National Backbone Infrastructure of Uganda to that of Tanzania so that their system can speak to each other.

Dr Baryomunsi added that the two countries have been interconnected to ease internet connection for the citizens of the two countries.

He noted that Uganda has been relying on the fibre optic cable running through the Indian Ocean and through Mombasa, Kenya but that was sometimes unstable.

According to him, the connection has helped to increase internet supply and also the reduction in the cost of supplying it to the end use in Uganda.

“It now costs $35 to consume one megabit per second (Mbps) per month unlike in the past when it cost $70 per megabit per second per month,” he said.

August 10, 2023, President Samia Suluhu launched Airtel-2Africa Submarine Cable Landing Station The station launched by the President is created through the Intercontinental 2Africa cable which is a 45000-kilometer subsea cable system and the largest cable project in the world.