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Telecom Namibia, the state-owned enterprise, plans to roll out 500 new mobile towers in the next five years as part of its plan to improve infrastructure and increase mobile coverage in the country. The telecommunications company’s rollout of mobile towers is in line with its existing plan to lay out fibre worth N$300 million.
Telecom Namibia, the state-owned enterprise, plans to roll out 500 new mobile towers in the next five years as part of its plan to improve infrastructure and increase mobile coverage in the country. The telecommunications company’s rollout of mobile towers is in line with its existing plan to lay out fibre worth N$300 million.
Telecom Namibia has taken two layer strategies, the first one is to enhance mobile coverage in the next five years and roll out 500 new mobile sites. The second is the fibre rollout, the country has the biggest footprint in terms of fibre and a N$300 million plan for fibre rollout across the whole country, stated Telecom Namibia CEO Stanley Shanapinda .
Shanapinda also highlighted the challenges that the state-owned enterprise faces while providing services. He cited bureaucratic processes within municipalities and town councils to get access to land to erect the towers as one of the hindrances in providing timely rollout. The problems in Windhoek around getting sites where one can’t roll out new mobile sites particularly quickly enough because of various bureaucratic processes with the City of Windhoek. He further noted that getting environmental clearance certificates is also an issue as it takes about a year or two to receive the clearance by which time customers are frustrated at the lack of service provision.
There are a whole lot of people who have been left out due to lack of connectivity. For the operators, the key issue that one needs to address is to bridge the digital divide. There are always gaps in rural areas, particularly around how the rollouts are going to be financed and this is why it is imperative that the government also gets involved as an investor.
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PowerCom, a subsidiary of Telecom Namibia, announced plans to invest N$36 million to construct 30 sites across various regions of Namibia to enhance its infrastructure for better network coverage, voice, and internet services. Telecom Namibia is planning to more than double its investment in network upgrades under its Integrated Strategic Business Plan, aiming to make its data and interconnection faster, increasingly reliable, and more secure.
Telecom Namibia stated that it requires N$2.371 billion in funding to sustain its capital projects from 2023 to 2027. It is reported that there are 1.37 million internet users in Namibia while internet penetration stands at 53.0% with a total of 2.81 million active cellular mobile connections.
