Arusha — AS Tanzania becomes the first country in Africa to roll out the high-speed 4th Generation (4G) internet services, the company behind this data-specific advanced coverage, intends to link six more regions within second quarter of 2014.
Speaking at the launch of the Smile Communications' 4G internet services in Arusha on the backbone of the Long Term Evolution (LTE), Ms Fiona McGloin, the company's country manager for Tanzania and Uganda said the firm will also offer free such services to public schools in each and every region under their coverage.
Before the Arusha launch, Smile Communications dished out a whopping 20 gigabytes of free data to the Arusha Secondary School's computer laboratory with promise to include a few more education institutions in their free service gifts listing.
After Dar-es-Salaam and Arusha, six more regions (those linked with fiber-optic cabling network) will be included in the Smile high-speed internet network before next June, thus making the number to reach eight and counting.
Speaking via LTE enabled 'Skype' from Dar-es-salaam, Mr Innocent Mungy, the communications manager with the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) said the country is proving to be a leader in innovative technology around the region and Smile's endeavors complements TCRA's ten years of achievements.
Official figures indicate that Arusha, the hub of Tanzania's tourism industry, ranks second after Nairobi when it comes to highest usage of internet services in East and Central African region, beating even Dar-es-Salaam and Kampala.
Arusha City was the first to offer its residents with email services back in 1994 when the concept was still a mystery to most parts of East Africa.
Before Smile Communications Tanzania (Smile) introduced Africa's first high-speed data in Dar-es-Salaam City, back in May, the country's fastest data offering fell back on the regular, but often limited, Third-Generation (3G or 3.5G) being offered by existing telecommunications' companies such as Airtel, Tigo and Vodacom whose data streams have to share with their respective voice channeling.
"But as far as Smile-4G is concerned we are specifically targeting data (internet) services only though in future we plan to roll-out trials for voice calling services," explained the firm's country manager, adding that, the LTE high speed connections will enable online business, video conferencing and faster downloading reaching 60 megabytes per second which is six-times faster than 3G.
And with companies rolling out internet enabled television sets, the Smile management assures that the days of satellite dishes and digital set box decoders are over because people will now stream TV broadcasts, programmes as well as films directly online.