BTC to spend P90m on 4G rollout
Pauline Dikuelo | Thursday October 6, 2016 14:40
In the corporation’s 2016 annual report acting managing director, Anthony Masunga said this financial year, they are planning to expand their network as well as develop their infrastructure.
“A P90 million investment is planned for 105 sites for 4G/LTE mobile rollout and further 3G rollout to semi-urban areas during the 2016-2017 financial year,” he said.
BTC has already commissioned eight 4G sites in Gaborone, which has resulted in a number of their users migrating to the services on a soft launch basis pending a full commercial launch.
The corporation also has 56 2G sites and 81 3G sites across the country and have plans in place to rollout an additional 41 2G and 70 3G sites next year.
The acting managing director said the 4G networks would enable their customers to experience fast broadband and mobile data offering. He said further investments and upgrades to facilitate high-speed broadband access are ongoing in support of the Government National Broadband Strategy and implementation of the Maitlamo ICT policy. “We continue to enhance our mobile network coverage whilst solidifying the existing fixed line customer base with a focus on improved customer experience,” he said.
To that effect, the company has this year made significant investments in technology to the value of P278 million. According to Masunga their investment into optimising their network is intended to increase its speed and capability and to ensure they obtain the maximum potential performance from a network that is reliable and available.
As part of their strategy, the company also undertook an exercise to assess its products, services, and processes in the context of the new business environment. An extensive stakeholder engagement was undertaken to ensure that the revised strategy met the needs of the market.
“BTC has refocused its strategy for 2016 onwards with the goal of becoming a customer-centric organisation. We are working very hard to improve customer trust and our customer’s experiences,” he said.
To achieve this, Masunga said the corporation is focusing on listening and responding to their customers noting that company-wise they are entrenching a high performance customer-centric culture whilst delivering improved operational efficiencies and effectiveness.