TCRA offers abundant opportunities for ICT innovators
THE government has re-affirmed its commitment towards providing valuable, scarce communication resources of frequency spectrum, short-codes, numbering resources and Dot Tz Domain resources free of charge to start ups and innovators in the country as part of strategy to boost digital services and promoting the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) applications.
Speaking in a special interview, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) Director General Dr Jabiri Bakari said one of the key roles of TCRA is to promote the use of ICT and enable new communication services focused on improving living standards of the people.
Dr Jabiri said previously, innovators and other incubators had to pay substantial amount of money to TCRA to get the valuable resources of frequency spectrum, numbering resources and short codes plus Dot Tz Domain name resources for local network connectivity.
He said as part strategy of supporting the innovators to come up with new ICT solutions that would directly benefit communities in the country, the government now offers the costly resources free of charge to start ups and incubators for a period of three months.
He added that three month testing period could be extended, provided the ICT solution-testing projects have been approved Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) as viable and promising.
The TCRA DG who recently addressed international Cyber Security Forum in Saud Arabia that comprised of ICT cyber security professionals, regulators, investors, researchers, academicians from private and public sectors, said that as an enabler to the communication sector, TCRA has also created a conducive level playing field to service providers for a harmonised sectoral performance.
He said the private sector has taken very positive step in support of the TCRA initiative, whereby mobile phone companies now allow credible innovators to use their facilities free of charge while banking institutions have offered sand box that enable start-ups to practice and incubate their innovative ideas into a reality of tangible and visible services that benefit the public.
Dr Jabiri told thousands of the delegates, who attended the conference that statistics that TCRA has just released on sectoral performance have revealed tremendous improvement and promising growth in the communication sector with very positive trend in economic development of the Country.
The TCRA chief said most of sections in the communication sector realised progress like Mobile phone Network Providers (MNOs), who recorded growth in the number of SIM Cards registered from 56.2 million in June 2022 to over 58 million by September 2022.
Dr Jabiri said TCRA recently successfully concluded auctioning of high value Frequency Spectrum Resources to service providers who will be able to open more opportunities for communication services in the country and enable the deployment of 5G.
