AS Namibia prepares to enter the 5G market, about 370 000 of the population still has no access to 4G internet coverage due to slow network infrastructure development.
This is according to the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (Cran), which has revealed that Namibia has been outperformed by South Africa regarding 4G roll-out, despite being the first to introduce the network.
In May 2012, Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) first introduced the 4G network in Namibia, ahead of South Africa, which only introduced the network in October 2012.
4G is the fourth generation of broadband cellular network technology which is 10 times faster than the 3G network, preceding 5G.
Urban areas in South Africa have 100% access to 4G, while its rural areas have over 90% coverage.
In Namibia, only 85% of the population has access to 4G.
Seven out of the 14 regions have 4G coverage of below 80%.
The Kunene region has the lowest 4G coverage, with 41%.
"MTC and Telecom Namibia have extensive network coverage in all of Namibia's regions, which contributes to coverage, but there remains room to increase the footprint to ensure 100% population coverage," Cran chief executive officer Emilia Nghikembua says.
According to the authority, MTC owns 73% of all Radio Access Network (RAN) sites, Telecom Namibia 24%, and Paratus 3%.
RAN connects individual devices, such as a cellphone, to other parts of a network through a radio link.
Paratus only has RAN sites in four regions, namely the Erongo, Hardap, Khomas and Otjozondjupa regions, while MTC and Telecom Namibia are operating RAN sites in all regions.
Nghikembua says Namibia's information and communications technology (ICT) sector was one of the leaders in Africa as recently as five years ago, but lost the role as a result of state-driven consolidation and the significant reduction in competition.
She says all telecommunication prices are high and broadband download speeds are low in comparison to other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.
Cran says 15 countries in Africa have faster average broadband speeds than Namibia.
Not only is the average download speed in South Africa almost three times the speed of that of Namibia, but six other SADC members also have faster broadband services, namely Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius, Lesotho, Tanzania and Botswana.
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However, this is an improvement from 2020 when Namibia was ranked 27th.
"Namibia can regain its position but needs to restructure the sector and investigate ways to attract private sector investment and to improve the level of competition," Nghikembua says.
She says there are great opportunities for private sector investment and local participation in last-mile connectivity, "most notably mobile 4G broadband, especially in underserved communities such as the Kunene, Oshikoto, Kavango West, Zambezi, Omaheke, Otjozondjupa and Hardap regions," she says.
Meanwhile, Nghikembua says Cran is preparing to issue the spectrum for 5G in March next year. Bank of Namibia governor Johannes !Gawaxab last year said the Covid-19 pandemic revealed that the country has not done enough when it comes to ICT development.
He said having access to broadband (or high-speed) internet is no longer a luxury, but a basic necessity for economic and human development.
