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.