BOTSWANA – Broadband connectivity provider Paratus Africa has injected about US$6 million into the development of an optical fibre network across Botswana as a seamless add-on to its existing infrastructure backbone.
The Managing Director Shawn Bruwer said the new infrastructure will further connect all of the country’s main industrial and trade areas.
The project is 98% achieved.
“At no extra cost to customers, fibre connectivity will give businesses unmatched uptime via a quality connection and particularly at a time when network capacity is under pressure owing to remote working,” he said.
“Also, critically, the investment in fibre in Botswana is strategically important in further securing [the country] as a hub in the Southern African region,” Paratus Botswana Managing Director Shawn Bruwer said in a press release.
Along with various stakeholders, Paratus spent the past two years planning the fibre infrastructure to connect the Botswana network in all the major business and industrial areas.
The CEO explained that diversity is achieved using an independent single network that guarantees enough capacity on multiple routes, which in turn, ensures minimum latency and downtime.
“A quality connection is no longer a ‘nice to have’. We already have a 100% independent microwave network and international connection and now the fibre will bolster the increasing bandwidth and uptime requirements for businesses on our diverse and independent network,” he said.
“At no extra cost to customers, fibre connectivity will give businesses unmatched uptime via a quality connection and particularly at a time when network capacity is under pressure owing to remote working”
“Our fiber roll-out, which is 98% complete, adds an attractive additional layer to our services enabling us to deliver unlimited bandwidth and uninterrupted services, no matter the environmental pressures we operate under. Paratus is also working hard to help unleash growth and upliftment in Botswana and to help the business community realize all that an improved, sustained and healthy economy brings with it.”
“We believe the Botswana business community thinks big and deserves to be given unlimited potential through fast, reliable network connections and unmatched uptime. We recognize the forward-thinking of the government’s Vision 2036 and its aim to transform Botswana from an upper-middle-income country to a high-income country by 2036,” he added.
Paratus Botswana provides network connectivity, Internet, voice, satellite, structured cabling and hosting solutions to support businesses.
Botswana’s data segment (operated by Mascom, Orange and BTC) has regained interest since 2019. The number of mobile broadband subscriptions increased by more than 16%, from 1,752,547 customers in March 2019 (according to the regulator) to over 2 million in 2020.
That of fixed broadband, operated by 31 providers, increased by more than 46%, from 18,977 subscribers in June 2019 to more than 27,000 subscribers in 2020.
Competition in the Botswana telecom market is high.
Paratus’s investments seek to strengthen its presence in the market and the company also plans to contribute to the country’s digital development, making it a hub in the Southern African sub-region.
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