Lately, BTC has been blamed for inhibiting investment because of its poor network.
She said already, fibre-optic rings have been installed to boost the reliability of telecommunications links along the eastern part of the country and that plans are at an advanced stage for the provision of the trans-Kalahari fibre optic transmission system to replace the existing obsolete microwave systems linking Jwaneng-Ghanzi-Maun-Orapa and Sebina-Nata-Kasane. The project will also include spurs from the main trans-Kalahari ring to the borders of Zambia and Namibia.
Venson added that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) tender has been awarded and the study is expected to take approximately 60 days to complete, following which, tender documents for the main phase will be finalised.
“The requirement of the new Environmental Protection Act is that such projects must be preceded by an EIA before construction can commence,” she said.
“This is a major infrastructure project that will take approximately 12 months from placement of the contract to its completion. The target completion date for the project is therefore December 2006,” she enthused.
In addition, she said BTC has completed the installation of a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) system to provide quality services to remote farms and lodges, as well as the many remote sites of the various government agencies. So far 19 customers have been connected in places such as Khwai River Lodge, Khutse, Ncojane and Seronga. She explained that BTC is also in the process of piloting and rolling out Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology in Gaborone, “this is the enabling technology to bring high-speed broadband access to homes and business for data, Internet and multi-media applications”. BTC expects to launch these services in select areas by the end of the year and introduce broadband into the rest of the country next year, she said.
The Minister said the other major initiative is the development of a new network switching and services platform known as the Next Generation Network (NGN). She said the adoption of NGN would enable the efficient deployment of a range of services such as multimedia messaging, multimedia conferencing, unified messaging, video on demand, as well as compression of traditional services for efficient use of infrastructure.
“The tender evaluation for this project is ongoing and bidder selection is expected to be concluded by the end of the second quarter of 2005,” she said.
“There is also a major project to improve this country’s international connectivity through undersea optic-fibre cables on the east and west coasts of Africa,” saying detailed feasibility studies have been completed for the East African Cable System (EASSy) whilst the one for the West African Festoon System (WAFS) is in progress. In the meantime, she said BTC has completed the feasibility study for the back-haul links from Botswana to the sea and proposals for project financing would be complete this month for submission to government. She added that talks are continuing between BTC and other operators in neighbouring countries for transit routes to link Botswana to the sea.
“It should however be pointed out that these discussions are quite complex because they entail the negotiation of a new trans-border regulatory and tariff structure to allow land-locked countries cheaper access to the sea,” she explained. The intention behind the discussion, she said, is to have the East Africa link operational by August 2007 whilst the commissioning date for the West African one will only be confirmed after the detailed feasibility study.
“When all these initiatives are complete, the country will have a reliable network of high capacity, high-speed links, which can connect to similar networks in neighbouring SADC countries and internationally, thus improving our global connectivity,” she said.
She said this when responding to a question from the MP for Palapye, Boyce Sebetela who asked her to appraise parliament on efforts to upgrade the country’s information, communication technology (ICT) infrastructure locally and internationally to achieve high speed, high capacity and resilience attributes for voice, multimedia applications and data which are critical for foreign direct investment attraction.
