Case study: National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB), Tanzania This case study will be of interest to regulators and governments that currently are constructing national fibre backbone networks to facilitate the roll-out of broadband connectivity and wider e-Enabling initiatives.The Government of Tanzania is building a fibre network under the NICTBB project in order to enhance the usage of ICT applications and promote the development of e-government, e-learning, e-health and e-commerce. The NICTBB is broadly intended to:• provide international connectivity to all landlocked neighbouring countries;• establish points of presence (PoPs) across all of Tanzania’s administrative districts; • provide all licensed operators equal access to the fibre network to stimulate competition;• enable the provision of affordable Internet to Tanzanians;• increase the usage of ICTs; and • facilitate the implementation of e-government initiatives.The NICTBB is managed and operated by the incumbent fixed operator, Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) on behalf of the government. It should be noted that the NICTBB network is completely independent from TTCL’s network. The USD 200 million project is funded by the International Telecommunication Construction Corporation (CITCC) of China at the cost of USD 170 million – mainly thanks to a soft loan from the Chinese Exim Bank47 and USD 30 million from the Tanzanian Government. The Tanzanian Government deployed a fibre cable on the rail, electricity and gas networks in 2010 and pooled this fibre into a single SPV, the NICTBB.The NICTBB provides high-capacity, long-distance wholesale capacity to fixed and mobile operators and ISPs, as well as access to international submarine fibre connectivity. The establishment of PoPs across Tanzania allows operators to connect their last-mile networks to a national backhaul network. NICTBB’s network connects major towns and cities across Tanzania, extending to the borders of all neighbouring countries. The NICTBB has also been connected to the two East Coast submarine cables (EASSY and SEACOM) landing at Dar es Salaam. Most of the NICTBB equipment has been accommodated in TTCL buildings so that operators can access carrier-class hosting and bandwidth services.The NICTBB has been implemented in phases, with 31 PoPs currently operational. By the end of 2014, NICTBB spanned 7 560 km across 24 regions. It has reached all border points and even garnered a USD 6.7 million contract to provide bandwidth to Rwanda over the next 10 years. Third-party research has found improvements in provision of e-commerce, m-commerce, e-banking, e-education and e-government since the NICTCBB commenced operations48. These improvements have enabled digitally excluded Tanzanians to become proficient in using e-services, accelerating Tanzania’s economic development.Even so, fixed broadband penetration remains very low in Tanzania, standing at only 0.1 per cent of the population as of June 2014. This stems from the limited coverage of fixed broadband metro and access networks. Improved coverage, especially in rural areas, has helped to make mobile services more accessible, but mobile penetration also remains relatively low in Tanzania, standing at 60.1 per cent at the end of June 2014, leaving room for continued growth49. The government awarded contracts to TTCL, in February 2014, and Vodacom, in April 2014, to expand coverage to under-served areas, and it supported the operators with the universal access fund. The telecommunication regulator has also helped improve the affordability of mobile services by introducing mobile termination rate (MTR) cuts in March 2013.Case study: Johannesburg Broadband Network Project (JBNP), South Africa This case study provides useful insights into a public outsourcing project that has – for a number of reasons – become a public DBO project. The Johannesburg municipal government took control of the project when contracts with private contractors were terminated.The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) municipal government began the JBNP in 2006 in order to Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016 13 Chapter 1