Editing Telecommunications in Tanzania (section)

==Regulation and licensing==

In 2005, mainland Tanzania, but not the semiautonomous Zanzibar archipelago, modified its licensing system for electronic communications, modelling it on the approach successfully pioneered in [[Malaysia]] in the late 1990s where traditional "vertical" licenses (the right to operate a telecom or a broadcasting network, and right to provide services on that network) are replaced by "horizontal" licenses (the right to operate telecom and broadcasting networks, with a separate license required to provide services on each network). Called the "Converged Licensing Framework (CLF)", this reform was the first of its kind put into practice on the African continent, and allows investors to concentrate on their area of expertise (i.e. network facility, network services, application services, and content services) across a larger number of previously separate sectors (i.e. telecommunications, broadcasting, Internet). This reform should, among other things, facilitate the arrival of telephone services over cable television networks, television services over telecommunications networks, and Internet services over all types of networks.<ref name=TCRA-LicensingInfo>[http://www.tcra.go.tz/index.php/licensing/licensing-information "Licensing Information"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811031949/https://tcra.go.tz/index.php/licensing/licensing-information |date=2020-08-11 }}, Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority. Retrieved 23 January 2014.</ref>

Under the Converged Licensing Framework four categories of license are available:<ref name=TCRA-LicensingInfo/>
* Network facility, the provision of any element or combination of physical infrastructure used principally for, or in connection with, the provision of Content services and other Application services, but not including customer premises equipment;
* Network service, a service for carrying information in the form of speech or other sound, data, text or images, by means of guided or unguided electromagnetic energy, but not including services provided solely on the customer side of the network boundary;
* Application service, the reselling of electronic communication services to end users; and
* Content service, a service offered for sound, data, text or images whether still or moving except where transmitted on private communication.

At the end of 2013 there were:<ref name=TCRA-LicensedOperators/>
* 21 network facility operators: 8 international and national, 11 national, and 2 regional;
* 17 network service operators: 8 international and national, 6 national, and 3 regional;
* 91 application service operators: 1 international, 15 international and national, 62 national, 11 regional, and 2 district;
* 85 radio content service operators: 6 national + commercial, 10 regional + commercial, 7 regional + non-commercial, 30 district + commercial, and 29 district + non-commercial;
* 30 television content service operators: 5 national + commercial, 4 regional + commercial, 1 regional + non-commercial, 6 district + commercial, and 17 district + non-commercial.

A complete list of licensed operators and contractors is available from the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) website.<ref name=TCRA-LicensedOperators>[http://www.tcra.go.tz/index.php/licensing/licensed-operators/ "Licensed Operators and Contractors"], Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority.</ref>