I believe other colleagues will share more of their knowledge after this post. But let try to provide as much information as I can in order to assist:
1. What roughly it's going to cost me as an end user with an average use of internet at home??
Most of that still rely on speculations. To predict the rough eventual cost at this moment remains a great puzzle. Since some providers are now offering internet services at around 45,000 to 90,000 Tsh a month even without the fiber, I hope this price could go down to as much as 20,000Tsh over time though. I recently spoke to a sales person at SimbaNet who make it clear that they don't expect to drop down prices significantly but will be offering more bandwidth at the same price. Dropping down internet service charges could hamper company revenues and most CEO's are very keen at that.
To my views, I think upon introduction of this fiber cable, prices will go down a bit slightly, to the contrary we will all have a good internet experience with much less download time and page loads. The question to how down the internet charges could go has its answer in market monopoly, fairness and competition.
2. Does this technology (Fibre optic) have any positive impact (in terms of cost savings) to an average Tanzanian who uses normal mobile phones? if yes, to what extent and when?
Yes, absolutely! The introduction of the submarine cable will have a dramatic impact on (nearly) all aspects of telecommunication industry, from mobile phones, internet services, phone calls, video conferencing, offshore outsourcing, and everything else. The impact is profoundly positive as you can now imagine.
But like I mentioned previously, 'to what extent and when' this is going to happen is not something easy to tell right now. Once this service is officially launched in public, our minds will start to learn a lot.
3. Are mobile phone coys such as Voda, Zain & others going to uninstall minara yao iliyosambaa nchi nzima, na ambayo tunaambiwa ina madhara kwa binadamu waishio karibu?
Not really! We still need the towers in place to relay signals to your handset. Fibre optic technology is not designed to compete with these towers or act as a substitute, but rather to support them by routing your phone calls internationally.
At the moment, all international gateways rely on satellites to connect Tanzania to the rest of the world. Unlike Fibre technology, satellites are very expensive, hence high telecommunication costs - internet charges, phone calls etc. Fibre optic is a much cheaper and more efficient substitute to satellite links.
Therefore satellites links will be replaced, not the Towers!
Naona mnaongelea $700 per 150 Mbps, wataalamu tunyumbulishieni on retail basis ili nasi tuwe na matumaini ya kuwaunganishia wazee wangu Nachingwea hii technologia!
I thinks ISP's will set the retail prices. Bus since they say this cable is 65% percent cheaper, lets assume Zantel is going to drop costs by 40%. Plus other market competition factors, may be the prices can go down to as far as 40,000Tsh, who knows!! Other guys might have a better ballpark figure than mine - I believe, so lets share it!
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