Tanzania
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Tanzania -- Communications

Telephone and Postal Service
Since independence, Tanzania's Posts and Communications Administration has operated postal, telegraph, and telephone services. By 1967, there were 275 post officesoperating in Tanzania. A relatively modern telegraph and telephone system was carrying electronic communications. But by the 1970s, postal and telecommunication services had deteriorated, and by the 1990s, the Tanzanian telephone system had become inadequate for local communications . In early 1994, Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation began work on a rehabilitation project for the Dar es Salaam telephone system. To improve services, the government divided the Tanzanian Posts and Telecommunications Corporation into two separate companies. [1]

Total lines: 131,000
179 Persons per telephone
Phone traffic (millions of calls)
Local: 4,325
Long distance: 4,621
International: 486

There were 780 post offices in Tanzania that handled over 141 million pieces of mail.

Radio, Television and Film
With about 740,000 radios in 1994, it is a very important part of Tanzanian life. Radio Tanzania, run by the government, and Radio Tumani, run by the Roman Catholic Press, broadcast over 3,600 total program hours in1987. Tanzania had three television transmitters and about 297 people per televisionin a 1989 estimate. In 1987, the total program hours were 1,915. There are 30 movie theaters with a 2.5 million annual attendance. In 1987, over 50% of the films shown were from India, 16% from the United States, 16% from Hong Kong, and 5% from Italy. The first color television service in sub-saharan Africa was in Zanzibar in January of 1973.

Publishing and Press
There are three daily newspapers with a circulation of 200,000. The government- run paper is the Daily News. It has a circulation of 50,000. One daily is published in Zanzibar, Kipanga. The national news agency is Shihata and was founded in 1976. In the current political scene, newspapers are playing an important role through critical debate.

Telephones: 137,000 (1989 est.)
Telephone system: fair system operating below capacity
domestic: open wire, microwave radio relay, tropospheric scatter
international: satellite earth stations2 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean)
Radio broadcast stations: AM 12, FM 4, shortwave 0
Radios: 720,000 (1993 est.)
Television broadcast stations: 3 (1995 est.); noteall on Zanzibar
Televisions: 55,000 (1993 est.)

Source: CIA World Fact Book
[1] Ofcansky, Thomas P. & Rodger Yeager (eds,) 1997. Historical Dictionary of Tanzania Second Edition, Scarecrow Press, Inc.: London
[2] Kurian, George Thomas 1992. Encyclopedia of the Third World, fourth edition, volume III, Facts on File: New York, N.Y.

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