We are far away from bankruptcy, says TTCL

TANZANIA Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) said on Thursday it is far away from insolvency because its main business is expected to increase by 50 per cent this year.

TTCL’s main business is networking firms via broadband, internet bandwidth and wholesale administration and said it has so far signed projects worth 15bn/- this year. Last year it had projects worth 10bn/-.

The firm’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Kamugisha Kazaura, said the contracts at hand involved only corporate clients, while there was a lot expected this year.

“Though we (TTCL) are facing financial challenges but the business ahead is very promising and we are far from liquidation,” Dr Kazaura told the ‘Daily News’ during the National Insurance Corporation (NIC) fibre cable project handover.

The CEO said the issue of bankruptcy was the result of poor interpretation and analysis of TTCL monetary state of affairs, but the firm’s operations are ‘sound.’

“Currently, we are in discussions with the government to turn what they owe us into capital,” Dr Kazaura said. He did not go into details.

TTCL, which handles the national fibre-optic cable network also termed as the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB), said currently all Tanzania’s neighbours were at their subscription docket.

TTCL’s Chief of Sales and Marketing, Mr Peter Ngota, said by July the firm will start offering mobile phone services using 3G and 4G’s network.

“Previously we concentrated on corporate customers but come July we want to offer 100 per cent mobile services in the country,’ Mr Ngota said.

He said TTCL will use satellite in the areas where tele-signal are weak as a measure to assure superior quality and efficiency to its customers countrywide.

Last week, TTCL signed a 182-million US dollars deal with Chinese’s Huawei Technologies to upgrade and expand its fixed and wireless networks.

Under the terms of the contract - the first phase of which is expected to conclude in June where Huawei will upgrade the TTCL’s 2G and 3G networks and also deploy 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

The agreement will also see Huawei deploy networks in rural areas in line with a Universal Communications Service Access Fund (UCSAF) contract won by TTCL in February 2014.

Through the NICTBB, Tanzania has been connected with East Africa’s submarine cable networks including SEACOM, EASSY and SEAS.

TTCL connects Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia and Malawi through fire optical cable. At the moment, TTCL is supplying 1.0 gigabytes of internet bandwidth to Rwanda, the 10 year deal worth 6.7-million US dollars.

Meanwhile, Dr Kamugisha said they have reconnected the local government optical cable network after an agreement with the government over the mode of payment which he did want to disclose.

Source:Dailynews

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The State owned Tanzania Telecommunications Limited TTCL, yesterday inked a 328bn/- or 182 million dollars deal with Huawei Technologies

THE State owned Tanzania Telecommunications Limited TTCL, yesterday inked a 328bn/- or 182 million dollars deal with Huawei Technologies aimed at helping the national telephone communication build its landline and mobile ICT networks.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Dar es Salaam, the TTCL Chief Executive Oficer, Dr Kamugisha Kazaura, said the first phase of the project will be completed by June, this year.

He noted that the projects in the deal involve building of a 4G Long Term Evolution, 3G UMTS and 2G GSM, technologies which will help TTCL to expand its services across the entire country at more sophisticated quality.

He pointed out that the technologies would help the company offer higher quality data services. The agreement involves procurement of equipment to take telecommunication services to rural areas under Universal Communications Service Access Fund (UCSAF).

UCSAF has been established by Universal Communications Service Access Act, 2006, with the key objective of fostering social and economic development in rural and urban areas through ICT intervention.

Other Objectives of Fund’s establishment include ensuring the availability of communication services in rural and urban underserved areas.

Dr Kamugisha said TTCL has won the contract to take telecommunications services to 69 wards that make up over 400 villages with over 500,000 residents.

Under the UCSAF project, TTCL will get 10 million US dollars for construction of infrastructure in earmarked wards. The agreement between Huawei and TTCL is part of the latter management efforts to improve services and expand them to reach more people across the country.

In a comprehensive plan that seeks to take advantage of the resilience of Tanzania’s National ICT Broadband Backbone, TTCL has recently won deals to sell more gigabytes of internet bandwidth as a commodity to neighbouring countries.

The nation has already closed a 6.7 million dollar, 10-year deal to supply 1.244 gigabytes of internet bandwidth to Rwanda. This means Tanzania becomes the first country in the region to start selling internet bandwidth to other East African Community (EAC) states thanks to the laying of the international submarine fibre-optic cable.

The deal was hailed as testimony to the firm’s growing international reputation. The deal is the biggest of its kind in Tanzania and the region in general.

Under the deal, TTCL is expected to test, install, configure, commission and activate a temporary link with 155 megabytes bandwidth per second by the end of this month.

The state-owned telecommunications firm’s chief said the government’s vision to transform the country into a communication hub for Africa is now within reach.

Source: DailyNews

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Tanzania: Huawei launches Ascend Mate 7

Huawei has launched its Ascend Mate7 in the Tanzanian market. According to Peter Zhang, Huawei Country Manager: “The recommended retail price of the smartphone is about TZS 1 million and it will be available in most key retailers.”

The Ascend Mate 7 has a slim 7,9mm, ergonomically curved design made of an aluminum alloy that weighs in at only 185g.

The standard Ascend Mate 7 single SIM model is offered with 2GB RAM and 16GB of on-board memory in either moonlight silver or obsidian black. The premium version of the device features 3GB RAM with 32GB memory and is a Dual SIM device that is available in amber gold.

One of the Mate 7′s latest features is a new single-touch fingerprint technology that combines with Huawei’s next evolution of EMUI 3.0 user interface. The Mate 7 also features LTE connectivity as well as an Octa-core (1.8GHz A15 + 1.3GHz A7) processor, depending on country and region.

Source: ITNews

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