Efforts by the government to promote employment opportunities and subsequently reduction of poverty will bear fruits if the third generation of mobile telecommunication technology (3G) becomes accessible in rural and densely populated areas.
Vice-President Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal
To address the challenges facing the services, a workshop was held in Dar es Salaam for two days to discuss, among other issues, growth of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the African continent, particularly reducing the running cost of transmission especially in rural areas.
Addressing the participants at the 14th ordinary session of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), the Vice-President, Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal, said the workshop paved the opportunity to discuss challenges facing the telecommunication sector in Africa.
“Some of service providers are beginning to advertise services in the city, but let us make sure that at least 3G services are available even in smaller townships and we must work hard to see that happening,” he said.
In stimulating employment opportunities and reducing poverty, we must also see ways to generate more content to fill the huge bandwidth that will be available rather than concentrating on the fastest internet providers.
He added that it is important for the communication companies in Africa to work together so as to lift up the rural communities and provide better access to communication and ICTs services.
“Locally communication companies should agree to share facilities, technical experts and some activities to reduce the involved running cost,” said Dr Bilal. Meanwhile, Prof Makame Mbarawa, the Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, said laws are underway to control cyber crime.
“Three Acts; namely the Cyber Security Act, Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) and the Data Protection Act are to be enacted shortly to overcome the information piracy in which innocent customers are the victims,” he said.
Mobile subscribers should consider joining hands with the Universal Communication Access Fund (UCAF) geared to protect the information of their crucial customers. A statement by the Secretary General of ATU, said in fulfilling one of its objectives for promoting investment in ICT infrastructure, the union established partnership in collaboration with various partners including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
“African member states in large numbers should consider to be part of these successful process of putting Africa with other developed countries and reclaiming equal distribution of globally allocated resources,” said the Secretary General of ATU Mr Abdoulkarim Soumalia.
By HILDA MHAGAMA, Tanzania Daily News