Tanzania has announced the beginning of a project to provide high-speed internet service to the slopes of the tallest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro
High-speed internet connection is enabled at Africa’s tallest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro standing at roughly 5,900 metres above sea level under Tanzania’s broadband initiative through a state-run telecoms company. Nape Nnauye, the Minister of Information, Communication & ICT of the Government of Tanzania, said in a tweet, “Today Up on Mount Kilimanjaro: I am hoisting high-speed internet communications (Broadband) on the ROOF OF AFRICA.” He further added, “Tourists can now communicate worldwide from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.”
Tanzania’s state-run telecoms company planned and provide the internet connection. Further, Nnauye promised that travellers would soon be able to interact with the rest of the globe up to Uhuru peak and the mountain’s summit as of October of this year, even if just a small portion of the mountain is now covered, Sputnik reported.
State-run firm enabled internet connection on ‘Africa’s Rooftop’
While installing a high-speed internet connection at the Horombo Huts campsite, which is 3,720 metres above sea level, Nnauye revealed that state-run Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation Limited (TTCL) had completed the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) project, which enabled internet connectivity on the mountain, also known as Africa’s Rooftop.
Furthermore, as per the Xinhua report, the NICTBB project aims at increasing the use of ICT applications in Tanzania for sustainable socioeconomic development through the deployment of e-government, e-learning, e-health, e-commerce, and other local and international initiatives.
According to the Sputnik report, before phone networks became ineffective at around the 1,860-metre mark, the roughly 50,000 tourists and hikers who climb the mountain each year had almost no way of connecting to the internet or even dialling emergency 911 while on Kilimanjaro.
Notably, Tanzania derives approximately 18% of its GDP, or $1.4 billion, from tourism and it counts Kilimanjaro as one of its top tourist destinations. Aiming to reach the mountain’s peak every year, more than 50,000 hikers from around the globe are drawn to Mount Kilimanjaro.