The Government has challenged the Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation (TTCL) to accelerate the expansion of fibre-optic internet services and connect more than one million homes by June 2028.
Minister for Communication and Information Technology Angellah Kairuki issued the directive on Friday, August 21, 2026, in Dar es Salaam while launching the second phase of TTCL’s “Faiba Mlangoni Kwako” project.
The project seeks to expand access to fast, reliable and affordable internet services for households, businesses and institutions across Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.
Kairuki said expanding fibre connectivity was critical to ensuring that ordinary citizens benefit from the opportunities created by the digital economy.
“Fibre is not just a cable reaching a home or office; it is an important bridge connecting citizens to opportunities in the digital economy,” she said.
She said reliable high-speed internet was increasingly important for education, employment, entrepreneurship, innovation and access to essential social and economic services.
However, Kairuki said there was still a significant gap between the growing use of internet services and household access to fibre connectivity.
According to Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) figures for the quarter ending June 2026, internet subscriptions had reached 62.7 million, while data usage stood at 1,041 petabytes.
Despite the growth, only 178,904 customers were using fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services, indicating that many households had yet to benefit from fixed high-speed internet.
Kairuki said the second phase of the project should increase fibre coverage to 500,000 home passes before TTCL reaches its target of one million homes by June 2028.
But she cautioned TTCL against measuring success simply by the number of homes reached by fibre.
She said the corporation must also focus on actual customer connections, service quality, internet speeds, the time taken to resolve faults, affordability and customer satisfaction.
“We should not be satisfied with fibre passing in front of a home if the household cannot subscribe. We should not be satisfied with subscriptions if the service does not deliver the promised speed and reliability,” Kairuki said.
The minister directed TTCL to prioritise rapidly growing residential areas, business centres, markets, industrial zones, schools, colleges, health facilities and Government offices.
She also called for closer cooperation between TTCL and local government authorities, property developers, building owners and business associations to make fibre connectivity more widely available.
Kairuki said the cost of connecting to fibre should not prevent Tanzanians from accessing high-speed internet.
She directed TTCL to introduce packages that respond to the needs of different groups, including students, young people, workers, fishermen, miners, small and medium-sized enterprises and institutions.
She also called for simpler registration procedures and shorter connection times.
“Connection fees, equipment costs and packages should not become barriers for citizens who want to access fibre services,” she said.
Kairuki further directed TTCL to strengthen network monitoring, preventive maintenance and the speed at which services are restored when faults occur.
She said customers who report faults should not be forced to repeatedly follow up on their complaints.
Instead, she said, TTCL should provide regular updates and ensure that reported problems are resolved within a reasonable time.
The minister also called for tighter supervision of contractors and suppliers implementing the project to ensure that work is completed on schedule, meets required standards and complies with contractual agreements.
Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Abubakar Asenga, urged the Government to increase investment and budgetary support for TTCL to enable the corporation to expand its network.
He said Parliament had repeatedly stressed the importance of strengthening TTCL so it could play a bigger role in expanding communication services and contributing to national revenue.
Asenga said TTCL collected about TZS 100 billion in the 2024/25 financial year after connecting around 280,000 customers.
He said the corporation could increase its revenue to about TZS 400 billion by 2029 after connecting more than one million customers.
With two million customers, he said, TTCL could generate revenue approaching TZS 1 trillion by 2030.
TTCL Director General Moremi Marwa said the second phase of the fibre project was part of the corporation’s 10-year business strategy covering 2025/26 to 2034/35.
He said TTCL had adopted Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology to deliver higher internet speeds, connect more customers at the same time, reduce operating costs and improve service quality.
The first phase of “Faiba Mlangoni Kwako” covered strategic areas of Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Dodoma, Geita, Iringa, Mbeya, Mwanza and Unguja in Zanzibar, where about 38,000 home passes were established.
The second phase, which began in July 2026, targets 400,000 additional home passes across Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.
Marwa said the programme is expected to support about 750,000 fibre connections by June 2027, with TTCL targeting approximately one million connections by June 2028.
The expansion is expected to widen access to affordable high-speed internet and support the Government’s efforts to build a more inclusive digital economy, where households, businesses and institutions can increasingly use technology to create jobs, improve productivity and access essential services.
