Dar es Salaam Leads in Submissions to ICT Competition

AFTER the launch of the international competition of ICT (App Star Challenge) earlier this month, Tanzania has recorded the highest registrations and submission of programmes as preparations for the competition get underway.
Sponsored by the Vodacom Group of Companies, the competition has been designed to motivate and reward contestants who develop innovative, creative, functional and original mobile applications. The competition also presents participants with an opportunity to technological solutions that can be used in emerging countries to solve common problems and challenges facing the public.
According to Vodacom Tanzania Head of Brand Communication and Marketing, Kelvin Twissa, 141 registrations and two submissions have already been reached. "South Africa has registered 89 and five submissions, Lesotho has registered 18 with no submission and Egypt has registered eight people with two submissions,"

Precision Air join forces with Vodacom Tanzania on e-ticketing project…..

Precision air customers will be enjoying the new service whereby they will be purchasing their tickets via their mobile phone using Vodacom M-PESA. Using the highly distributed Vodacom network the customer will be able to make these transactions at any place in any time and they will be provided 20 percent discount if they purchase the tickets through Vodacom M-PESA accounts. 

The service will enable the customer to save time and resources as the purchase of the e-ticket would simply be done using their mobile phones. Precision Air commercial director Mr. Patric Ndekana when making the announcement in Dar es Salaam yesterday he said “Previously customers could either pay online using credit cards or physically visit Precision Air offices or agents, but with M-PESA things would be much easier”. 

On the mechanism on the service he said the customers would have to book for a ticket through the airline’s call centre to obtain a booking reference number needed to effect the transfer. To make payments customers would follow the normal procedures of paying for a service via M-PESA, whereby Precision Air company number 333777, would be followed by the reference number provided earlier. The customer would then be notified of their ticket number, currently in Tanzania there over 20,000 M-PESA agents.

Tanzania the first E.A broadband covered country.....

The race for the East African regional ICT hub is on for Dar es Salaam has the government of the United Republic of Tanzania is completing the installation of the massive broadband cable throughout the local towns and cities. One the greatest achievement of the President Kikwete’s Government is the installation of the wide sophisticated and efficiency broadband network in Tanzania. The broadband network will be used to supply network connection even to the neighboring countries. The government has done a lot of effort to make sure the underground sea cable reaches the border cities ready to connect the countries which would be interested to the service and some of the countries including Rwanda have shown their interest in the project.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania has completed construction of Phase II of the countrywide broadband backbone linking all major urban centres, a move that would bring down internet connection costs, according to the Broadband management entity.

The National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) the government board that have been given the responsibility to handle the broadband connection management  issued a statement which was  released yesterday, showed that the Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) tariff structure would see a reduction of 33 per cent effective from September 1, this year.

IRU is the effective long-term lease (temporary ownership) of a portion of the capacity -- to other service providers -- of an international cable, that is, an agreement between operators of a communications cable, such as a submarine communication cable or a fiber optic network and a client. The revised tariffs would include those for ten years, 15 and 20 years lease contracts. 

Under phase II, the completed and commissioned routes are Dar es Salaam – Lindi – Mtwara – Songea – Makambako – Mbeya – Tunduma – Sumbawanga –Mpanda – Kigoma – Manyovu –Biharamulo – Bukoba –Mutukula – Nzega – Tabora.  

   

“This development has come following the adjustment of tariff for an annual lease structure that was done in April this year,” said the statement made available to the media yesterday. 

The development is the country’s major breakthrough in the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), whereby the backbone would link with similar backbones in all the neighboring countries and enhance connection.