Debt - external: $6.8 billion (2000 est.)
Economic aid - recipient: $963 million (1997)
Currency: Tanzanian shilling (TZS)
Currency code: TZS
Exchange rates: Tanzanian shillings per US dollar - 924.70 (January 2002), 876.41 (2001), 800.41 (2000), 744.76 (1999), 664.67 (1998), 612.12 (1997)
Fiscal year: 1 July - 30 June
Communications Tanzania
Telephones - main lines in use: 127,000 (1998)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 30,000 (1999)
Telephone system: general assessment: fair system operating below capacity and being modernized for better service; VSAT (very small aperture terminal) system under construction domestic: trunk service provided by open wire, microwave radio relay, tropospheric scatter, and fiber-optic cable; some links being made digital international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean)