The Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) has won a 6.7
million US dollars (about 10.7bn/-) contract to supply 1.244 gigabytes of
internet bandwidth to Rwanda for 10 years.
TTCL Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Said Amir Said, told the 'Daily
News' shortly before signing the contract in Kigali that striking of the deal
was testimony of the firm's growing international reputation.
"After all the problems that TTCL has had over the years, winning
this contract shows that the management has turned around its image as well as
proof that it has the capacity to compete in big tenders," he said.
Mr Said said under the contract, TTCL was expected to install,
configure, test, commission and activate a temporary link with 155 megabytes
bandwidth per second by the end of this month.
"This contract that we are about to sign is the biggest of its
kind so far .. Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya and Uganda have also expressed
their interest to us to supply bandwidth to them," he revealed. Mr Said
also revealed that Rwanda had also expressed interest in getting additional
bandwidth.
The CEO said that with the East African Community and other regional
integration efforts being increased, it went without saying that ICTs greatly
enhanced the performance of a country and a catalyst to increased efficiency in
different sectors of the economy.
According to a statement made available by TTCL, the bulk international
broadband bandwidth has been procured through the World Bank grant under the
Regional Communication Infrastructure Programme - Rwanda, a project that aims
at lowering prices of internet capacity as well as extending the geographical
reach of broadband networks.
"As a land-locked country, Rwanda faces significant challenges in
getting access to low cost international connectivity. This purchase of bulk
international capacity on regional and international networks will
significantly boost our vision to make bandwidth available on the Rwandan
market," the Rwanda Development Board Chief Executive Officer, Mr John
Gara said.
The permanent fibre optic link between
TTCL's existing optic fibre within Tanzania and Rwanda's national backbone will
be activated with a 1,244 gigabytes service by the end of October, this year.
The National ICT Broadband Backbone Project (NICTBB) is already
connected to two major submarine cables of SEACOM and EASSy, extending the
connectivity to the neighbouring countries.
The virtual landing station of the
submarine cables through the project have been established at the respective
cross border points of Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia and Kenya.
Source: The Daily News,dailynews.co.tz, reported by Masembe
Tambwe
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