Tanzania’s mobile internet story is strong on the mainland, with Vodacom and Yas together holding over 50% of the market. Zanzibar’s story is different. The archipelago’s tourism-dependent economy runs on connectivity; hotels, tour operators, financial services, e-government, but reliable fixed broadband has been a persistent gap.
That gap is now being formally addressed. The Zanzibar government has signed a TZS 300 billion ($114.5 million) deal with Yas Fibre, a subsidiary of Yas Tanzania, the country’s second-largest mobile operator with 28.9% market share, to roll out fibre broadband across Unguja and Pemba islands over the next three years, targeting 100,000 connected households and businesses by 2028.
Yas Fibre signed the deal with theZanzibar Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Agency (ZICTIA) and the Zanzibar Ministry of Communication, Information Technology and Innovation, giving it formal institutional backing beyond a commercial contract. The TZS 300 billion ($114 million) will be invested over 20 years, with the first 3 years focused on the 100,000-customer target.
Across all of Tanzania, Fibre to the Home (FTTH) subscriptions stood at just 123,052 at the end of 2025. Fixed broadband has been the missing piece of Tanzania’s digital infrastructure story, with mobile internet doing nearly all the work. Zanzibar’s deal doesn’t solve that nationally, but it gives the country’s most economically significant archipelago a dedicated fibre operator with state backing, the kind of structure that tends to outlast commercial pilots that fade without institutional support.
Yas is not a new entrant betting on an untested market. It built its 28.9% mobile share by competing directly with Vodacom across mainland Tanzania. Moving into fixed broadband in Zanzibar is a logical extension, and a market where the demand from tourism and commerce is concentrated enough to make the unit economics work faster than they would in a dispersed rural rollout.