BoFiNet rolls out faster, cheaper Internet project
Keikantse Lesemela | Wednesday October 29, 2014 17:10
The project is estimated to cost P150 million. The FTTx is a single pair of optical fibre shared between two and up to 128 customers, hence lowering connectivity costs. It is expected to give consumers’ access to a larger choice of interactive applications, such as video conferencing, E-government, E-health, e-Commerce and business applications.
Speaking at the stakeholder meeting yesterday, BoFiNet chief Engineer Projects and Implementation, Mpho Koolese, said through this initiative, BoFiNet would be able to utilise fibre resources efficiently at low premiums.
“Last fibre connections were available at higher premiums and there was limited uptake. This connections will enable us to utilise fibre resources efficiently at affordable premiums, due to point to point connections,” he said.
Koolese explained that the bandwidth delivered through optical fibre is not dependent on cable length.
“FTTx removes all the bottlenecks that slow down the performance of other types of network. You can download files 10 times faster than with ADSL networks,” he added.
He also noted that East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and West Africa Cable System (WACS) under sea cables were underutilised because BoFiNet did not have infrastructure to offer these services to customers.
“We are going to put WiFi in all malls in Gaborone because we want to ensure that the network is available to all users,” he said.
The WACS delivers a speed of 5.12 terabits per second and the EASSy is the highest capacity system serving sub-Saharan Africa with a speed of 3.84 terabits per second, among the highest data rates in the world.
Koolese said the FTTx project, which starts in December, would cover Gaborone, (CBD mall), Francistown (Main mall), Kasane/ Kazungula (Kasane central) and Maun (Central). This would also cover government offices, industrial centres, health facilities, tourism facilities, education facilities and retail centres.
Koolese however said although they wanted to cover the entire cities, they are limited by financial resources.
“Our intention is to cover the whole city but due to financial constraints we are starting doing selected areas. We are still conducting some consultative exercises until the project becomes operational,” he said.
He said the plans for connecting fibre to homes had also been considered but it comes with challenges, as there is poor infrastructure.
“We are still negotiating with Botswana Telecommunications Corporation to allow us to use their lines. BoFiNet is committed to bring infrastructure closer to the users through FTTx,” he said. Koolese added that this would create a platform to facilitate service providers to provide end-user with innovative bandwidth. Last week BoFiNet revealed the names of five companies contracted to carry out the deployment of optic fibre cables and associated civil works in various areas of the country. The contracts are estimated to be worth P200 million.