BTC, Korean Telecom project to deliver high internet speed
Isaac Pinielo | Wednesday November 29, 2017 18:00
The multi-million pula project, which commenced this month, is expected to take 12 months. As part of the project, BTC intends to deliver high internet speed of up to 50Mega Bites per second (Mbps). It will be piloted in Gaborone, Francistown, Maun and would later be rolled out to other parts of the country.
According to the corporation’s managing director Anthony Masunga, the project is in response to market demands for an improved, faster and reliable internet. “We aim to provide a better customer experience and offer innovative product and service offerings to the market. We want to transform the network we are currently providing to be able to provide it at a reliable faster speed,” he said. Masunga assured that through the improved infrastructure, they will be able to deliver high internet speed, which will enable them to provide tailor made fixed broadband and mobile broadband products for customers at the right quality of service at the right price. He said the transformation and modernisation of BTC infrastructure will improve mobile and broadband customer experience ushering in new products for the benefit of the end user. “Customers and industry pundits concur that with the legacy of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) broadband copper access network reaching its technological end of life, the transformation of the infrastructure will be best for their customers,” he said.
Korean Telecom will also transfer skills to local engineers at BTC, which Masunga said will be beneficial, as they will also utilise the skills even when the Koreans have left.
For his part, Korean Telecom chief executive officer Chris Moon said through the partnership, they will bring fast reliable broadband to Batswana adding that they will also train the local engineers. “We are proud to partner with BTC to bring fast reliable broadband to Botswana. We are also happy that we will be transferring skills to BTC engineers during project implementation to ensure sustainability,” he said. The project is said to be part of the Corporation’s growth strategy, which is customer centric and aimed at fostering innovation to improve stakeholder satisfaction levels. The project is carried out in partnership with other vendors like Ericsson and Huawei.
For financial year ending March 31, 2017 the telecommunications firm, recorded a P237 million profit from a comprehensive loss of P371 million in the prior year.
The company also invested in its infrastructure in the period which saw capital expenditure increasing by 57% on the back of capital commitments to strategic projects such as Mobile 3G/4G Expansion, Billing Platforms Convergence, Data Centre and Network Operation Centre (NOC).