Inspecting the progress of the construction of phase II of the National Information Communications Technology Broadband Backbone infrastructure (NICTBB) in Lind and Mtwara on Thursday, Prof Mbarawa said that fast, efficient and cheap data traffic through the broadband will facilitate the delivery of diverse services, such as e-education, telemedicine, e-agriculture, e-commerce, and e-governance to the remotest areas in the country.
“This will be quite a revolution because it was hitherto impossible to deliver such ultra-modern services to rural Tanzania. The shortage of, say, teachers will now be the thing of the past since a single teacher would be able to teach more than one school at the same time through the Internet,” he told reporters.
He said on its part, the government has already embarked on the preparation of e-governance and e-learning programmes.
“Our aim is to connect all districts councils to the broadband to make e-governance a reality because they are important in services delivery from health, to education. E-governance will help us boost efficiency through undercutting bureaucracy and corruption,” he added.
Currently, 59 districts have been connected to the NICTBB. The number will increase to 80 at the completion of the construction of phase II, which is also expected to connect all 21 regional headquarters. So far 15 regional centres have been connected through phase I of the project.
The rest of the districts would be connected in the phase III construction of the NICTBB; while six neighbouring countries namely Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, and Kenya have been connected with the backbone.
The 5,300 kilometres long NICTBB is being constructed by the International Telecommunication Construction Corporation (CITCC) of China at the cost of Sh238 billion, most it being a soft loan provided by Chinese Exim bank.
The deputy director of CITCC Tanzania Haijun Jiang, said the construction of phase II is in the first stage that consists of laying down the fibre-optic cable in the Southern ring. “The cable has already reached Lindi and Mtwara from Dar es Salaam. From Mtwara it will connect to Songea where it will a meet a cable being laid from Njombe. This first stage is expected to be completed by July this year,” he said.
He noted that the second stage of phase II that consist of the western ring will start soon. It will connect Tunduma (at the Tanzania/Zambia border) with Biharamulo in the north-western part of the country, passing though Sumbawanga, Mpanda, and Kigoma. This stage will be completed by March next year.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Damas Kanyabwoya
Quelle/Source: The Citizen Daily, 27.03.2011
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