Tanzania Travel Guide - Communications

Country code: 255. In some rural areas, international calls must go through the operator. There are many public call boxes in post offices and main towns.

Roaming agreements exist with most international mobile phone companies. Coverage is limited to main urban areas.

E-mail can be accessed in Internet cafes in main urban areas, which are affordable and efficient. Those in more remote towns that rely on satellite access are a little more expensive.

Airmail to Europe takes one to two weeks. Courier services take three working days.

Post office hours: Generally Mon-Fri 0800-1300 and 1400-1630; Sat 0900-1200.

Until the 1990s, Tanzania's media was largely state controlled. Founding president Julius Nyerere believed TV would increase the divide between rich and poor. It was only in 1994 that the first private station was launched, and in 2001 that state-run TV was first broadcast. There are now several channels as well as DSTV (Digital Satellite Television), a South African subscription satellite channel. Numerous private radio stations are on the air. Although liberalisation laws were brought into force in 2001, these do not apply to Zanzibar, where there are no private broadcasters or newspapers, though many locals can receive mainland broadcasters and read the mainland press.

• Government-owned Daily News is Tanzania's oldest newspaper.
• Private English-language newspapers The Guardian and This Day.
• Private Swahili-language newspapers Nipashe and Alasiri.
• Private weeklies Business Times, The Express and Arusha Times.

• Channels include state-run Televisheni ya Taifa (TVT) and private networks Independent Television, Dar es Salaam Television, C2C Television, Channel Ten and Coastal Television Network.
• TV Zanzibar is state run.

• State-run stations include Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam, Parapanda Radio Tanzania and Voice of Tanzania-Zanzibar.
• There are dozens of private FM radio stations, most of them operating in urban areas.
• Among the private networks are Radio Free Africa, Radio One, Radio Sky, Radio Star and Radio Uhuru.
• News bulletins from international radio stations, including the BBC, Voice of America and Germany's Deutsche Welle, are carried by many stations.