Windhoek — AfricaOnline, formerly MWEB Namibia, has announced that it will double the amount of bandwidth capping for the majority of users of its WiMax internet from the beginning of next month.

Capping is the maximum amount of usage allowed under the various packages as offered by local ISPs.

The increase in usage comes at no cost, but excludes users of its 192k WiMax product who will instead be able to upgrade their capping from 1 GB to 3 GB for an amount of N$75.

Asked if competition from mobile internet service providers prompted the increase in capping for Afri-caOnline subscribers, General Manager Marc Gregan said, "We began testing new fibre products a year ago, with a view to substantially increasing our users' capping at that stage. We initially focused on satellite internet sources, but noted that advances in fibre technology made the technology more viable. The tests came back positive and as a result we have been able to increase capping from 3 GB to 6 GB on our baseline home service and from 12 GB to 30 GB on our top of the range business product."

Asked if Africa Online would reduce its use of satellite internet, Gregan said, "No, satellite is still very much a part of our operations. Satellite has taken us to areas where internet has been difficult at best, if not impossible.

There are lodges in the far parts of Namibia that now run internet cafes even though they still don't have access to other forms of telecommunications. We also intend to maintain the prudent course and back-up our service continuity with the current satellite bandwidth. "Our tests show that by adding fibre bandwidth to our network, users will have faster access to the Internet, which ultimately means faster browsing for our clients," he said.