Photo: Kalle Pihlajasaari Telecom Namibia yesterday launched its latest product, SpeedLink, which is a fixed broadband product with faster Internet connections and higher bandwidths for both home and business users.
Telecom Namibia's Managing Director, Frans Ndoroma, said the product is a game-changer in Internet service provision for Namibian homes and businesses, adding that it will offer cheaper prices, faster speeds and unlimited downloads starting at a cost of N$349 per month.
The new product is enabled through the official commissioning of the West Africa Cable System (WACS) in Cape Town on May 11 2012. The WACS will offer improved and faster Internet services.
The system has 15 landing stations across Africa's west coast from Europe to Cameroon, Nigeria, Angola and Namibia among other countries, before it ends in South Africa. It will cover over 14 000 kilometers under the Atlantic Ocean.
The WACS cables landed in Swakopmund last year. This is in line with the promise of free Internet access by the Minister of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), Joël Kaapanda, recently. Institutions of higher learning, vocational training centres, state schools as well as health centres will enjoy free Internet access, a venture that will be launched soon by the MICT.
Kaapanda at the time explained that government had spent approximately N$300 million to make the services available.
He added that Telecom Namibia made available the telephone line infrastructure, as well as wireless technology for the implementation of the project.
However, the most daunting challenge is the lack of electricity at all schools, as well as the lack of computer equipment, according to Kaapanda.
Existing Telecom customers will receive upgrades to the new system at no cost, according to Ndoroma.
Kaapanda yesterday said there is need for Namibia to adapt to broadband technology to contribute to the economic growth of the country.
"Namibia cannot afford to lag behind," he stressed, while Ndoroma added that WACS would enhance e-medicine, e-commerce and e-learning, as well as become an instrument for achieving Vision 2030.
"The WACS submarine fibre-optic cable has enhanced Telecom Namibia's ability to provide improved and cheaper Internet services for the benefit of our customers," he said.
The Telecom MD added that the speeds of SpeedLink can go up to 2 mega bits per second for home use and up to 10 mega bits per second for business use.
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