BoFiNet Is Taking Fibre to The Home In Botswana

Botswana Fibre Networks, (BoFiNet) surprised a crowd of guests with another important milestone: Fibre To The Home or FTTH technology. Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) is the installation and use of fibre from a central point directly to individual buildings such as residences and apartment buildings to provide unprecedented high-speed Internet access.

The launch brought together stakeholders to share information on the availability of home infrastructure, deployment locations, benefits associated with fibre optic technology, access to high-speed connectivity and other opportunities that will be offered by this technology.

Speaking at the launch, Transport and Communications Minister Dorcas Kobela Makgato said that his ministry, which is the lead ministry for BoFiNet, has made broadband available to businesses in urban and remote areas of Botswana.

“To date, we have connected 4,410 companies and government offices across the country using broadband fibre. In Gaborone, there are already two thousand seven hundred and forty-one (2741) companies connected by FTTx technology. This number will double in Gaborone by the end of October 2019 with 2,317 additional connections, for a total of 5,058 government and commercial premises in Gaborone, fully connecting all commercial premises. We should then celebrate the creation of a fully connected business community in Gaborone.

She said that they were aware (as a department) that technology must evolve and develop, which is why they were launching fibre optics at home.

Once completed, this project will provide a broadband fibre infrastructure at your premises and, once connected through an Internet service provider or service provider of your choice, will provide our customers with a completely new Internet experience at home. It is also planned to issue calls for tenders for FTTB and FTTH for Jwaneng and Orapa in the current financial year and to deliver the connections well in the 2020/2021 financial year. The project will transform the way we communicate and the speed of the Internet at home will be greatly improved and improved.”

Makgato explained that these new developments will not only bring new opportunities such as job creation during the implementation phase but also opportunities that are there to stay once the project is completed. “Eleven corporate citizens will benefit from this commitment by carrying out all civil engineering and cabling work as well as installation and maintenance at the customer’s premises. This project offers companies such as BTCL, Mascom, Orange and other established Internet service providers the opportunity to migrate their customers from weather-exposed wireless solutions to more scalable, stable and fast fibre optic technology.

Mr Makgato said that development will mark the beginning of a new era in which “we, as a nation, are able to obtain academic degrees or even doctorates online from the comfort of our homes. This new era also provides us, as a nation, with an opportunity to begin to consider the creation of six global companies that will enable us to compete globally. I hope and wish that online transactions will be on the agenda. It will enable our customers to benefit from products such as video-on-demand and IPTV services, some of which are provided by the 3G/4G and LTE complementary solutions currently deployed by other service providers.

Source: www.biztechafrica.com