Parliamentary committee impressed by under performance of Indian firm in Dar

THE standing Parliamentary committee on Infrastructure is intending to advice the government to take away the 35 shares it earlier sold to an Indian consortium firm known as Bharti Airtel Company Ltd who bought Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL) in 2004. Speaking to journalists last week in Dar es Salaam, the committee’s Vice-chairperson Professor Juma Kapuya said that, his committee has reached such a decision after having found out that, the company has invested nothing in terms of money and technology as per the agreement ever since. Professor Kapuya and his fellow committee members discovered this when they toured the centre of the National ICT Backbone Broadband which all the communication companies in the country are connected.  The project is owned by TTCL company which the Indian company owns 35 percent stake and the government 65 and is at the company’s headquarters located at the heart of the Dar es Salaam city centre. Accompanied by journalists in his entourage, Prof. Kapuya who was impressed by the development of the centre was shown how the project works to serve their broadband capacity to all communication companies in the country. He said, since an Indian company bought the firm through a legal tender announced by the government over a decade ago, it has extremely done nothing in terms of capital investments as well as in terms of providing the necessary modern communication technologies as per the agreement reached. In view of this, however, he said that, his committee would send a request to the government for the company’s withdrawal from the partnership as it is seen to be a burdensome company which runs the company in losses instead of profit. “The company was supposed to inject enough capital in the business when contracted but it has done nothing” he said adding that, his committee will advice the government on how to enter a contract of withdrawal of the firm in this business. However, he said the government couldn’t take actions since then because it was trying to see what they could do to improver their plans despite unfulfilled promises. 

Professor Juma Kapuya

He couldn’t disclose for how much loss the company has been running its entire operations when asked but noted that, there has been less improvements in terms of technology as expected in comparison with other mobile companies operating in the country. He said TTCL is not so famous when it comes to mobile phone operations and is not widely known like other mobile phone companies since it ventured in mobile phone communication business. Earlier Prof. Kapuya told journalists that, his visit is part of the directives issued by Parliament in order to ascertain proper utilization of the invested capital on communication companies in the country, and for the start have resolved to visit the TTCL as a national company which was sold to an Indian consortium firm. At the project centre Prof. Kapuya was briefed that, the National ICT Broadband in the country covers 7,560 Km and among these, 2112 Km are divided into three major rings namely Western, Northern and Southern rings. About 5,448 Km of the ICT broadband is the underground infrastructure. There are also 88 stations out of which 32 are service stations. Other stations boost up power of the communication broadband. Briefing the Vice-Chairman was the company’s ICT engineer Nsanji Mwamukonda who said that, there are about 9 stations constructed at the national borders of the country with their neighbors. He named them as Sirari, Namanga and Horohoro bordering Kenya. Others are Rusumo bordering Rwanda, Kabanga and Manyovu bordering Burundi, Tunduma bordering Zambia and Kasumulo bordering Malawi. Engineer Nsanji further noted that, at the headquarter they have 15 technical engineers who works tirelessly and on shifting basis in order to control all these stations countrywide. Apart from the role being played by the centre to increase the capacity of the national broadband to communication companies, the centre is also connected with the government ministries and its various institutions through Regional Communication Infrastructure Project (RCIP) in the country. A network Engineer Adam Mwaipungu said that, through the network various government ministries and the associated government colleges have been connected with the centre with a view to provide cheap and reliable ICT broadband for internet communication. He also noted that, the network has also been connected with the sea fiber cables and that up to now already 44 ministries are connected to boost up the ICT services.