The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority(TCRA) Extends Best Telecom Regulatory Modalities to Africa

Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has remained a role model organisation for other African communications regulatory authorities, it has been established.

As a matter of fact, some regulators especially from Sub-Saharan countries have been coming to Tanzania, to learn and benchmark the best telecommunications regulatory modalities from the country’s sole telco regulatory body.

This was revealed recently in Dar es Salaam, during a study visit to Tanzania by a group of telco engineers and other staff from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ). The delegation visited TCRA to study spectrum management strategies and equipment capabilities.

Speaking about the tour in the city, TCRA Director General Dr Jabiri Bakari revealed that the country’s Telco Regulatory Authority has continued to ensure it maintains a positive relationship with other regional regulatory bodies to ensure it fulfills its obligations as outlined by its establishing laws, which call for the country’s communications regulatory body to consult with other regulatory authorities or bodies carrying out functions similar to those of the Authority in other countries.

“Our colleagues from POTRAZ have come to learn how we manage spectrum; they’ve come because their plan is to strengthen theirs by equipping their systems. Their visit demonstrates the confidence they have in Tanzania; we have accorded them due cooperation and enlightened their skills accordingly,” Mr Jabiri emphasized.

He said the competency of TCRA in managing Telecommunications sector has been noted as one of the reasons why other telecommunications management authorities in Africa are eager to learn from Tanzania.

Mr Jabiri said the existence of a converged licensing framework (CLF) that permits the intertwining of communication services licenses and effective management of communication resources, including telco spectrum, were listed as among the obvious factors that put TCRA on the map and made other communications regulatory authorities recognise the significance of setting benchmarks in order to enhance their own.

Tanzania has been identified as one of the African nations that successfully adopted more modern and cutting-edge technologies.

Notable examples include the successful and complete transition from analogue to digital broadcasting systems, rising to second place in Africa for cyber safety, adopting a converged licensing framework, successfully distributing fiber optic networks that are expected to cover 15,000 kilometers of the entire country by 2025, and implementing 5G technologies.

At various times, communication authorities from Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have visited Tanzania, to learn the best approach to administer communication services from TCRA.

The country’s communications regulatory authority oversees communication service resources using mobile, and ground-based equipment to ensure that service providers render services that meets required service standards.

It works with a number of regional and international communications institutions to do its job.

These include the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the East African Communications Organisation (EACO), African Telecommunications Organisation (ATU), Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU), with headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, Universal Postal Union (UPU), and Communications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA).