By JOSEPH MWAMUNYANGE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

TANZANIA IS establishing a national telephone numbering plan to control, allocate and issue telephone numbers.

The Tanzania Communications Commission (TCC) Director-General, Lt Col Abihudi N. Nalingigwa, told The EastAfrican that it was necessary to review the structure of Tanzania's telecommunications system in the light of political and economic developments both within and outside the country.

"The main shortcoming of the current system is that it was designed for a monopoly operator (TTCL) environment," he said, adding that the system would hinder development as well as competition if retained.

A notable feature of the new system is that users will no longer have idle numbers, because they will be required to account for their use.

"The objective is to ensure optimum utilisation of the scarce resource, as well as generate financial resources to meet operating costs for the management and maintenance of the National Telecommunications Numbering Register," Mr Nalingigwa said.

TCC is an independent, quasi-government body whose functions are to regulate and monitor the telecommunications sector.

Telecommunications services are currently provided through a public switch telecommunications network (PSTN), public data communication network (PDCN), mobile cellular network, radio paging and private networks.

Early this year, Tanzania adopted the National Telecommunications Policy (NTP),which runs up to the year 2020. The NTP aims at developing an efficient telecommunications network that can provide an info- communication infrastructure and access to telecommunications services for all Tanzanians.

Tanzania's telephone density currently stands at 0.32 for every 100 inhabitants, well below the average for neighbouring Kenya's 0.92.

The low telephone density means that most urban and rural still lack telecommunications services.

The telecommunications sector was liberalised in 1993, ending the TTCL'smonopoly.Under the new plan, the country aims at achieving a telephone density of six sets for every 100 inhabitants.

Meanwhile, TTCL has embarked a $13.5 mil lion expansion and modernisation project that includes Zanzibar and Pemba, which if completed as scheduled in December, will mark the end of TTCL's 1994-1998telecommunications restructuring programme (TRP).

The project will see the installation of a new 10,000-line digital telephone exchange in Zanzibar, replacing the present one, which has a capacity of 4,000 lines. Transmission channels for Zanzibar have already been expanded from 400 to 1,400, which TTCL officials say has eliminated congestion.

The $250 million TRP operation has overhauled Tanzania's telecommunications infrastructure and national exchange system, rendering all telephone numbers registered before 1994 useless.

Under the TRP, the state firm has managed to raise its total telephone exchange capacity to more than 150,000 lines.

The programme was primarily aimed at replacing outdated analogue switches with digital transmission technology.TTCL officials say the restructuring has helped to improve the capacity, reliability and quality of services.

Most of mainland Tanzania now has new telecommmunications facilities.

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