Country
The United Republic of Tanzania

Project name
Information and Communication Technology for Rural development (ICT4RD). It is a Research and Development (R&D) project with a vision of improving services by making information easily available and accessible in rural public sector. ICT4RD's mission is to design and validate a strategy for creation of a sustainable broadband markets in rural areas of Tanzania by:

• Establishing pilot sites to test different access network technologies;
• Identifying end-users needs and ability to pay for their services;
• Identifying and test different business models for sustainability;
• Establishing ICT awareness trainings to advocate the need and use of ICT in rural areas;
• Increased local and central governments’ involvement to enhance ICT4RD ownership and experience replication.

Personnel
Project leader – Amos Nungu ; He is the project manager coordinating daily activities of the project.
Social Researcher – Helima Mengele
Technical – Vincent Jacob

Coordination centre or main site
ICT4RD is funded by SIDA and managed by a management committee formed by heads of Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT), Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and Royal Institute of Technology – Sweden (KTH). Project partners include the ministries of (education, health and local government), the regulator (TCRA) and JUASUN – a rural ISP in the northern part of the country.

ICT4RD has a project manager who coordinates the daily project activities, the manager is reporting to the management committee. Also, there are pillar coordinators (Usage; Technology; Entrepreneurship and Impact) under the manager who work directly with the “Local Task Forces” at the District/Ward level. Tasks assigned to the four (4) pillars are summarized below:

• Usage – evaluate and suggest end user needs.
• Technology – advise and research on appropriate technical solutions.
• Entrepreneurship – monitor and facilitate entrepreneurial activities.
• Impact assessment - analyzing the socio-economic situation before and after the introduction of the project.

Main towns
Bunda District, Serengeti District and Bagamoyo District. According to the 2002 sensor, the population of Bunda District is 260,000; Serengeti District is 177,000 and that of Bagamoyo District is 230,000.

Locations (district and province level)
ICT4RD is currently saving two pilots namely Serengeti and Wami. Serengeti pilot consist of Bunda Distric and Serengeti District while Wami pilot is in Bagamoyo District. According to the 2002 sensor, the population of Bunda District is 260,000; Serengeti District is 177,000 and that of Bagamoyo District is 230,000. Also, according to the baseline study conducted by ICT4RD in 2007, the percentage of people living below the poverty line for Bunda is 67.7%, Serengeti is 60.6%.

Areas covered in both pilots are as follows:
Bunda District - Bunda town,
Serengeti District (Mugumu town and Natta village)
Bagamo District (Chalinze, Lugoba and Miono villages)

The GPS coordinates are: Bunda Council (S 02 01.420 E 33 51.708); Serengeti town (S 01 50.474 E 34 39.820) and Wami (S6 27.604 E38 19.799)

[Please, find map locations at the end of the attached document]

Main activities
Capacity Building in technical, social and business; ICT awareness creation; Policy issues; but also addressing the millennium goals related to poverty, education and health. Providing connectivity and local services like Email, VoIP, eLearning and eHealth. But also, providing Internet.

Project ownership
Beneficiaries are the community from the districts involved and below at all sectors. Expected impact is a well informed society and better services.

Hence, the project (infrastructure, management and operations guidance) is owned by the community represented by team (Board) at the district level. Service providers do own the services and/or applications run in the network.

Funding sources
Main funder is SIDA. The project is also using existing infrastructures free of charge from the government (like optic fibre in the backbone).

Broad description of income generation
Public institutions are not paying yet; they are still enjoying the free services funded using the seed money from SIDA. They are the ones using the local services. However, there is an ongoing discussion and awareness trainings so that they can start budgeting for the running cost of those services once the project funds run out. We expect the government institutions to start contributing in December 2008.

Private individuals who are internet users only do pay for their connectivity equipments as well as monthly charges.

Technology
Backbone
Specifications
VSAT Ku Band. 64kbps uplink, dedicated; 128kbps downlink, shared.
Provider
Simbanet - www.simbanet.co.tz. They provide a shared pool at COSTECH where all projects under COSTECH share.
Monthly cost - USD 587.91 per site.

Satellite sites
1.Bunda town covering Bunda and Serengeti Districts
2.Lugoba village covering Chalinze, Lugoba and Miono villages

Backhaul Specifications
We have optic fibre as backhaul in both pilot. In the Serengeti pilot, ICT4RD is using pair of fiber cable from the OPGW cable from the national utility power company (Tanesco) to connect the two districts. In Wami pilot, ICT4RD is using a pair of fiber cable from the Wami water Project.

The main function of both fibres is to provide communication for their running services.
Distribution
Optical fibre
Wireless
All wireless equipments are outdoor, WiFi 802.11a/b/g, 2.4 GHz. Most of the radios (base station/Clients were purchased from www.tenxnetworks.com. In Bunda town, we have ubiquitous radios from http://ubnt.com/ as well.
Current antennas are from Hyperlink (www.hyperlinktech.com) ranging from 120 degree to omni with a gain of 15dBi.
Wireless frequency
ISAM 2.4GHz
Cable
Power Line Communication

Telecommunications regulation

Legality of VOIP
VoIP is legal in Tanzania
Wireless regulation in ISM band
ISM band is un-regulated in Tanzania

Relationships
Working with private enterprises and local entrepreneurs through the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to run the network as well as from Community owned entities (not for profit) at a district level, where there is no such entities.

ICT4RD is working on creating an institution mechanism in Bunda and Serengeti districts. This is an effort to foster the local ownership/leadership needed to ensure sustainability. The process has just started where the body has been formed by members from central government, local government, business community, faith based as well as non-governmental organizations. The next step is assisting them in creation of their bylaws and capacity building.

Relationship with local government
ICT4RD is working with the local government in the implementation and training process. This is necessary to create the required leadership translating into ownership which will lead to sustainability
Relationship with government departments
We always report what we are doing to the central government, sometimes asking for guidance with respect to proposed services and applications. They have never turned us down except that they move very slow.

Relationship with telecom regulator
The regulator is a member of ICT4RD's steering committee. They always provide assistance wherever we need them.

Relationship with telecom providers
Even if we don't work together yet, there is no problem. ICT4RD started discussion to use a mast of one of the providers to extend our network, it seem we may reach a consensus on that.
Future expansion plans
There is currently a directorate of ICT in the ministry of Science, Communication and Technology. The project is in discussion on how to use our pilots as models for expansion to the whole country i.e. taking it a national project.

Also, we are encouraging different districts to come out wit their own budgets so that the can replicate into their respective areas if the government is not moving that much fast.