So, What Should TTCL Do Now?

I am usually conflicted in my heart whenever I write about TTCL: I have interacted with many individuals in TTCL, from the bottom to the top, and I would not wish them to feel that I am maligning their work. Quite the contrary.

In mid 2000s, I was attached to a TTCL’s team in Arusha for my industrial training. I have rarely seen people more dedicated to their work. Once they were called to resolve a transmission fault at Loksale hill, next to Tarangire National Park, where TTCL has one of its oldest sites – inherited from the colonial days. Telecoms projects have taken me to many remote places but climbing up the Loksale hill was the most dangerous route I have ever taken in my entire life! But it was just another day at work for those guys.

Therefore, let’s be clear: TTCL has had many capable professionals. And it still does. Nonetheless, when the system doesn’t work, it means it is broken.

Why is the System Broken?

Back in 2014 a minister stood up in parliament and proudly announced that TTCL would increase its subscriber base by 900,000 and 3.1m subscribers by 2015 and 2020, respectively. Only 15,000 and 900,000 subscribers were added in those durations, respectively.

As valiant as the government’s attitude towards TTCL is, it is ahistorical. TTCL’s story is at best that of calamitous failures and missed opportunities. Indeed, if one was compiling a litany of things that illustrate how not to approach a telecom market, a review of TTCL’s history would do.

You cannot miss failure when you consistently aim for it.

The story has been the same from the old monopoly days when new subscribers could wait for months for new lines to be installed, to the contemporary days when subsequent waves of mobile solutions passed TTCL by as it was watching uncomprehendingly. 1G, 2G, 3G, and now 4G – same story. You cannot miss failure when you consistently aim for it.

TTCL’s numbers have increased lately, but that’s thanks to the government’s decision to make it a preferred service provider. Quality of service has improved too – TTCL’s use of NICTBB plus its investments in metro networks in Dar, Arusha, Mwanza, Dodoma, Moshi, and Mbeya is making an impact. Rebranding has also uplifted the company’s image too – it appears to be more dynamic, a far cry from the sorry image that it used to project in the past.

However, true commercial success still eludes TTCL. The company is simply not strategic enough.

Why TTCL Falls Short Commercially?

In 2016 TTCL engaged a foreign team of consultants to prepare its transformation plan. Some may argue that that was the first strategic blunder – if you must cross borders to get this task done for you then you are already out of touch with reality.

Afterwards TTCL started making noises about rebranding, its 4G and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services. I am happy with the results of the rebranding exercise; it is the other things that I have problems with.

Firstly, TTCL is ill equipped to compete in 4G business. For example, Vodacom’s 4G sites in Dar are more than TTCL’s 4G sites nationwide. If you can’t match your more illustrious competitors in investment, your chances of success will be slim indeed. Moreover, even with sizable capital, TTCL’s market entry strategies haven’t been bold enough to disrupt the market. Last year I had an occasion to switch to TTCL only to realise that its packages were benchmarked against Smile’s. That put me off. Why would TTCL wish to emulate any operator in its pricing strategy? I stuck with Smile.

It almost feels like TTCL doesn’t want TTCL to succeed.

Secondly, while I was excited to hear about the FTTH trial, I am informed that uptake has been dismal at best. Since I worked hard to persuade TTCL’s management to adopt FTTx services in 2010, the question is – was I misguided then? Only when I heard of the locations that were chosen for FTTH trials did I understand: There was little appreciation of FTTx deployment scenarios. I faced a similar issue a decade earlier.

It almost feels like TTCL doesn’t want TTCL to succeed.

What TTCL Should Focus On

The mobile technology hype has led so many people into thinking that fixed broadband services are nothing. Therefore, TTCL has struggled to appreciate its true strength – provision of fixed broadband infrastructure services. Oh, what a terrible waste this has been!

China, with 1.2m base stations, is connected with over 40m kilometres of fibre cables! In 2017 it laid 7.5m kilometres of fibre in one year! Meanwhile Tanzania has been making a meal of its NICTBB ‘success story’ – less than 10,000km – for a decade now. We don’t get it yet.

In 2017 China laid 7.5m kilometres of fibre in one year, while Tanzania heralds NICTBB's 10,000km in a decade a great success

As a public entity, TTCL has an opportunity to champion this course. Had TTCL done the right things in the past, hundreds of thousands of households would have had access to fixed broadband, people would be making unlimited phone calls within its network, IPTV and VoD would have been household terminologies, and broadband uptake and usage would have been much higher. But, alas, instead of focusing on those low hanging fruits, it is chasing 4G wild geese!

In the next few years, a major window of opportunity will open for TTCL again: 5G. The keys for success will be fibre, fibre, and fibre. If TTCL choose to seize the moment now, it will start to lay fibre cable today like a madman. When no building or no infrastructure project is carried out anywhere without broadband infrastructure ducts laid within then we will know that they ultimately get it. In so doing TTCL will also position itself as a force to be reckoned with when 5G ultimately arrives.

Over to you, TTCL.

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