Minister hails Telecom Namibia progress

GOVERNMENT

Namibian ICT Minister Joel Kaapanda has hailed Telecom Naibia’s role in driving connectivity in Namibia.

Speaking in Windhoek at the 6^th Telecom Namibia ICT Summit, the Minister highlighted the arrival of the West-African-Cable System last year, saying it had laid the foundation with state-of-the-art infrastructure for ICT promotion, growth and development.

He added that Namibia’s direct connectivity to the WACS cable placed the country in an advantageous position to act as a gateway for land-locked countries to access the rest of the world through the submarine cable system.

“The international points of presence that Telecom Namibia is establishing in various countries would immensely benefit neighbouring States,” the Minister added.

Telecom Namibia Managing Director Frans Ndoroma pointed out that the decision to transition the company towards a Next Generation Network Operator six years ago had seen advances in ICT in the country, and the introduction of many innovative products, services and solutions by Telecom Namibia and other ICT players.

In addition to the tremendous growth in broadband capacity over the last, Ndoroma revealed that more and more households are being connected to the Telecom Namibia fixed broadband networks with maximum speeds of 2 megabit per second. Fixed broadband connections in 2011 increased by 28.7%, while net growth this year amounted to 31%.