Through its Wireless Reach initiative, Vodacom, supported by the GSMA Development Fund and Qualcomm, has connected Internet cafes in three of Tanzania's cities to its HSPA mobile broadband network, enabling locals to gain high-speed access to information and multimedia services on the World Wide Web. Run by local entrepreneurs, each Internet cafe is equipped with several computer terminals connected to Vodacom's HSPA network, which can provide download speeds of up to 7.2 Mb/s.
Tanzanians will be able to pay a small fee to use the computer terminals, which will enable them to access the Internet to find important information about everything from education to health to commodity prices to weather forecasts.
The initial three Internet cafes, in Dar es Salaam, Dodoma and Arusha, will be followed by more cafes in other parts of Tanzania. Housed in converted shipping containers, the cafes also will sell such other Vodacom products and services as airtime vouchers, payphone calls and handset recharging, as well as acting as an agent for the M-pesa mobile money transfer service. In a country where fixed lines and computers are scarce, the cafes will enable many ordinary Tanzanians to enjoy Internet access and its many associated benefits for the first time in their lives.
Tanzania is one of the fastest developing countries in Africa today with an average GDP growth of 6.5% per year. Availability of information and communications are key to fostering this growth. Vodacom Tanzania has been promoting this factor for eight years.
Vodacom Tanzania has drawn on the expertise and resources of the GSMA Development Fund and Qualcomm's Wireless Reach Initiative to develop the business model and technology underpinning the Internet cafes. Having supported the deployment of several hundred Internet cafes connected to mobile networks in Bangladesh, the GSMA Development Fund has extensive experience in this field. Qualcomm is contributing by bringing its expertise to the project and enabling 3G software and hardware, network service, technology training and project management.
"Mobile broadband has the potential to bring affordable Internet access to hundreds of millions of people globally who live beyond the reach of fixed-line networks," said Dawn Haig-Thomas, Director of the GSMA Development Fund. "The innovative shared access approach being deployed by Vodacom Tanzania demonstrates how operators can make the rich and important services offered by mobile broadband accessible to many more people."
* Vodacom Tanzania Limited (Vodacom) is a Tanzanian cellular network offering state-of-the-art GSM/3G voice and HSDPA broadband communication services to more than 4.5 million customers across the country.
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More info: www.vodacom.co.tz
