Telecom Namibia and Cisco Systems hosted more than 20 girls from the University of Namibia for the International Girls in ICT Day event at the former’s Main Offices in Windhoek on 25 April 2013.

By Oiva Angula
26 April 2013

The forum was organised in partnership with networking leader Cisco Systems to encourage Namibian girls to choose a career in information and communication technologies (ICT).

Telecom Namibia and Cisco Systems executives, including a number of successful women from Telecom Namibia, shared their knowledge and experience with over 20 participants from the Cisco Networking Academy at the University of Namibia (Unam) Department of Computer Science.

The Unam IT students were accompanied by Prof Jameson Mbale, the Coordinator of the Unam Centre of Excellence in Telecommunications and Information Technology, which is a joint initiative between the academic institution and Telecom Namibia. Prof Mbale expressed deep appreciation to Telecom Namibia and Cisco for supporting the event in Namibia.

The International Girls in ICT Day is an initiative of the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations. The day has been celebrated internationally since 2010 to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of ICT.

Telecom Namibia Managing Director Frans Ndoroma delivered the opening remarks at the forum and encouraged the participants to consider careers and possibilities in the fast developing ICT field.

“I am so proud of you all and am confident that from amongst you will emerge ICT leaders who will make a positive impact on our country through technology,” Ndoroma told the students.

“What I want to tell you today as students is that all jobs in the future will involve the use of more and more ICT. If I look at job postings half the jobs advertised are ICT related, and this is the case even during an economic downturn,” he added.

The Telecom MD stressed the need for more girls to join the ICT field if Namibia was to succeed in the emerging knowledge-based economy which is largely fueled by ICT. “Although Namibia is still at an early stage in the use of ICT products and services, widespread adoption will greatly assist our country to achieve the vision of a healthy, wealthy and educated nation as articulated in [Namibia’s] Vision 2030,” he said.

Gerrit Smit, Cisco’s Account Manager for East and Southern Africa Public Sector and Wireline & Mobile Service Providers, said that despite the obvious benefits in working in the ICT field, many girls never even consider a career in ICTs. “Go to university but when you finish find something in the ICT field that really fits your personal ambitions… ICT is no longer a ‘man’s world’,” Smit said.

The ICT sector remains a growing sector for employment, and a key economic factor underpinning both national and international development in both developed and developing countries. Many countries and regions are predicting a shortage of qualified staff with math, science, engineering and computing skills to meet the growing demand.

Telecom Namibia’s Chief HR Officer Andrew Kanime said his company was looking to increase the number of female in its employment. “We give preferential treatment to girls and women when it comes to staff recruitment, appointment and promotion. We also strive to include more girls in our training and development schemes,” Kanime said.

The HR chief also shared the career opportunities available at Telecom Namibia in the areas of marketing, finance, human resources and, more importantly, IT.

Globally, it is estimated that the world shortfall in skilled ICT professionals exceeds two million. Namibia is experiencing an acute shortage of IT/IP related skills and knowledge.

The participants were taken on a tour of Telecom Namibia to show them the behind the scene systems and people that make possible the practical applications of ICT in such areas as education, banking, public administration, transport, and commerce for the benefit of citizens, consumers, and businesses at large.

The facilities visited included the Network Operations Centre, Data Centre, Co-Location Server Room, EWSD Local & Trunk Exchange, Windhoek’s CBD Main Distribution Frame and the Support Systems (Genset Room).

“It is awesome to see such a large number of female IT students these days. In my time we were very few in numbers,” Hedwig Kareenatjo, Application Specialist: OSS at the Network Operations Centre, remarked.

And when the female IT students left Telecom Namibia, they had one question on their minds, “Are you leaving IT to the boys?”

The landing of WACS on the Swakopmund beach on 8 February 2011
WACS to be supported by Cape Verde-based Alcatel-Lucent cable ship to ensure rapid response time.

Paris, 24 April 2013 - Alcatel-Lucent and the West Africa Cable System (WACS) consortium have signed a contract for the maintenance of more than 9,000km of the WACS system linking South Africa to Portugal. In commercial service since May 2012, WACS interconnects 13 African countries including Namibia, unleashing a new wave of broadband capacity on the continent and enhancing international connectivity.

Under the new agreement WACS will join the Atlantic Private Maintenance Agreement (APMA), allowing the consortium to access Alcatel-Lucent’s maintenance vessels, as well as experienced, fully trained, and certifiedspecialist personnel for cable repairs.

In delivering high-speed bandwidth of more than five terabits-per-second, the WACS infrastructure provides open access to regional telecom operators and Internet service providers. Furthermore, it contributes to opening up broadband in Africa, lowering the cost of access and allowing the delivery of innovative applications such as e-education and e-health, contributing to the improvement of people’s lives.

Commenting, Dr Angus Hay, Chairman of WACS Management Committee said: “With the start of its commercial service, WACS is already giving impetus to African economies along its cable route. This makes it even more critical to ensure optimal network availability and quality of service. Alcatel-Lucent’s world-class technical support and capabilities, including state-of-the-art cable ships, will further enhance the reliability that our low-latency system delivers to meet the performance and stability required.”

Philippe Dumont, President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks said: “This contract underlines Alcatel-Lucent’s leading role as a marine service provider, helping operators maintain their networks with the highest standards of service reliability and at the highest level of end-to-end efficiency. With the recent establishment of our depot in Cape Verde, we are able to offer the shortest possible mobilization time for any repair operations off West Africa.”

17 April 2013

TELECOM Namibia today has announced that it plans to build a fibre-based, mobile and wireless telecommunication infrastructure at Farm Gross Haigamas, 30km south of Windhoek.

Farm Gross Haigamas is a Greenfield development which has been turned into a golf and residential oasis – dubbed ‘Omeya’ - sprawling over 260 hectares beneath the Auas Mountains.

Telecom Namibia will build a WiFi network to ensure wireless coverage throughout the estate and rollout fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) which uses optical cables to deliver ultra-fast broadband and telephone services with network interface speeds of more than 100Mbps.

The telecommunication giant, through its cellular company Leo, will also build a 3G mobile base station at Omeya, which will be complemented with 4G towards the end of this year.

Once complete, the network will offer voice, IP, data, internet, telecommunications services and value added services (VAS) to residents at the Greenfield development.

The combination of FTTH, WiFi and mobile network will give seamless access to all Omeya residents and visitors.

“Although the initial goal is to provide basic WiFi Internet access, we are actually building a high-speed fibre-to-the-home network that will be delivering even more services and applications in the future,” said Heiko Trost, Telecom Namibia’s Chief Commercial Officer.

Trost explained further that the network solutions for Omeya provide the convenience and flexibility of wireless with the power of direct fibre connection to homes that comes with plenty of performance for more demanding applications such as high speed broadband access and live video surveillance.

Omeya will be connected to Telecom Namibia’s national fibre backbone in a ring protected design towards Windhoek to the north and Rehoboth to the south.

“We plan to deploy fiber high speed solution to help us better position our services against competitive offerings, as well as expand our offering into areas where our competitors are currently lacking,” said Hein Bader, Telecom Namibia‘s Chief Operations Officer. “Our decision to deploy fibre high speed solution is a direct response to customer desire for bandwidth speed and affordability.”

Bader said that the provision of WiFi and fibre high speed solution for Omeya strengthens Telecom Namibia‘s portfolio and aligns with its focus to continuously meet the highest standards of customer satisfaction by constantly improving the capabilities, quality, and delivery of products and services.

“Telecom Namibia is ready to expand its reach to any Greenfield development like Omeya in order to meet customer demands for new solutions,” he added.

The advantages of digital networks have been clearly demonstrated in countries where fiber high speed solution has been in place for some time. There is anecdotal evidence that the presence of high speed broadband and its related services changes people’s lives and enhances the values of properties while also ensuring the rapid sale of properties relative to non-fibre enabled communities.