By Oiva Angula
6 October 2014

Telecom Namibia Managing Director Frans Ndoroma says the national telecommunications services provider has started constructing a fibre-based network to connect the central government to the administrative capitals of all 14 regions in the country.

Ndoroma said during the opening of a two-day national Information Communication Technology (ICT) summit in the capital on Monday that the network would also provide Government with a connection to all educational and health institutions.

The summit is being held under the theme "ICT for Development".

Ndoroma stressed that in light of aiming to achieve the government's goals for economic development, the company believed that broadband penetration was a key element in its strategy.

As the national ICT service provider, Telecom Namibia is also marching towards achieving the country's ICT objectives -- to accelerate economic development, targeting the global model, which projects that a 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration will lead to a 1.38 per cent increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"We believe that a strong, reliable and nationwide ICT broadband infrastructure and global connectivity are key to the efficient functioning and development of the

telecommunications industry, businesses and the economy. High-speed, high-quality, affordable broadband is the foundation of an innovative ICT sector which will enrich the quality of life for individuals and propel Namibia forward," he said.

Ndoroma explained that broadband is a tool which would help make the change at the level of the main pillars of Vision 2030 - for economic, human, social and environmental development, and in line with Namibia's pursuit of economic development to catch up with the developed nations.

The ICT service provider has invested in excess of 2.0 billion Namibian dollars to improve the country's telecommunications infrastructure since 2007.

"We truly believe in sharing communication and ICT infrastructure towards achieving the development goals of the country," he stated.

Ndoroma indicated that the company will continue to drive broadband-based consumer and business services by expanding broadband via modern backbone networks and state-of-the art access technologies via Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Optical Fibre, Carrier-gate WiFi and mobile 3G and 4G Long-term Evolution (LTE) technologies.- Nampa/Reuters