8 February 2011

The much awaited West Africa Cable System (WACS) makes a historic landing in Front Beach at Swakopmund, Namibia, today. The landing is expected to mark the beginning of cheap bandwidth which in itself would translate into many possibilities in the Information and Communications sector of the Namibian economy.

The project jointly executed by Telecom Namibia and its Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks partner may give Namibia the lead in the magical broadband revolution in Africa, as well as in tele-education, telemedicine, e-commerce and e-government among other practices that transform economies.

The shore-end landing works begins at 06h00 this morning. The cable ship and the tugs will take up their positions offshore and clearing and preparation of the channel for cable alignment will begin. Divers and other personnel will be active closer to shore, making preparations to lay and pull the cable into the beach manhole. The work area will be secured for safety but the general public can witness the activities from the Mole head and at the beach manhole point (Swimming Pool).

Telecom Namibia`s Managing Director, Mr. Frans Ndoroma, said the landing of the WACS submarine cable is a significant milestone in Namibia`s ICT development and a proud moment for our country. "The landing is of historic proportions since the economies of today are largely driven by internet and other ICT connections which are great enablers of faster global connectivity in order to stimulate economic for growth, and development of our country," Mr Ndoroma added.

The 14000-km WACS cable will bring direct connectivity between Namibia, West Africa, the UK and the rest of the world, with a design capacity of at least 5.12 Tbit. This will translate into much faster and more robust connectivity for voice, data and video. It has landing points in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d`Ivoire, Cape Verde as well as the Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

WACS is being constructed at a cost of US$ 600 million. Namibia`s investment in the design and construction of the cable amounts to some US$75 million, which has been co-invested with Botswana on a 50/50 basis. Upon completion, WACS will enable current services and future, next-generation services at the highest industry standards and at a competitive cost. It will dramatically improve telecommunications delivery and the delivery of communications services generally and thereby place the enormous potential of ICT within the grasp of every Namibian.

"Telecom Namibia is therefore proud to be the Landing Party in Namibia and looks forward to the project`s completion by mid-2011 when the WACS cable will become operational," Ndoroma said.

"This project represents a major milestone in our company`s operational development as well as reason for all Namibia to celebrate. We look forward to working collaboratively with Government, the private sector, the regulatory agencies and indeed all stakeholders to exploit fully the opportunities that the WACS cable will provide," he added.

12 October 2010

Telecom Namibia recently signed a wage and benefit agreement that will cost the company no less than N$18.2 million for the 2010/2011 financial year.

Telecom Namibia met with the Namibia Public Workers Union (NAPWU) to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on wages and benefits for its employees destined for the new financial year.

Telecom Namibia committed itself to increasing the basic salary for employees in the bargaining unit for Paterson job grades A2-D3 by 9.2% across the board as from 1^st October 2010, as well as an increase in other benefits.

Managing Director of Telecom Namibia Frans Ndoroma, at the signing ceremony of the MoU said the agreement is the outcome of two weeks of intensive negotiations.

`It is a deal that will help to increase incomes and improve living conditions of our employees,` he said.

`The short period in which this agreement was reached is proof of the sincerity, trust, teamwork, confidence and mutual respect which not only permeated the whole negotiation process but also characterizes employee relations within Telecom Namibia,` he added.

Ndoroma expressed his pride in the agreement, adding: `Given the current economic realities, it is a very good agreement for Telecom Namibia. It is a very good agreement for our employees,`

NAPWU General Secretary Peter Nevonga said that labour relations between the union and Telecom Namibia are sound.

`We commit ourselves to promote sound labour relations and endeavour to find amicable solutions for problems as they arise,` he said.

Nevonga also urged employees to increase productivity and encouraged the management of Telecom Namibia to support these efforts on the part of Telecom Namibia workers.

18 September 2010

Telecom Namibia has announced new tariffs for the 2010/11 financial year with effect from 1 October 2010.

All international call charges will be kept unchanged. However, a tariffs promotional campaign to selected international destinations will be introduced for a period of 3 months.

Starting from 1 October 2010, Telecom will conduct a three months promotion for both fixed/Switch to fixed and fixed/Switch to mobile calls to international destinations at a flat rate of N$2.49 per minute. International calls are charged on a per minute basis with an initial call set-up charge of 85 cents.

The promotions includes international destinations such as RSA Mobile (peak), Angola, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA and the rest of the world.

The rate for calls to RSA Mobile during off-peak time remains at N$1.99, while call charges to RSA Fixed remain at N$1.99 per minute (peak) and N$1.19 per minute (off-peak).

Charges for calls destined to neighbouring destination, i.e. Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, remain unchanged.

ISDN and basic telephone line rental charges will be increased by average 9% for both business and residential customers, while site sharing & co-location rental chargeswill go up by average 9% from 1 October 2010.

"It is important to note that, except for the above-mentioned adjustments, no other tariffs have been adjusted," the company`s Department of Corporate Communications and the Public Relation said in a recent public notice.

The adjustments are in line with the ongoing tariff rebalancing process initiated by Telecom Namibia a few years ago. Tariffs rebalancing is the process of aligning the tariffs of services to the costs of providing them and eliminating cross-subsidising of services.

The tariffs rebalancing is based on the unique position of Telecom Namibia in the country`s telecommunication market as the only fixed line operator with nationwide presence and being the largest and fully integrated network of the country with the aim to give more and more advantage to customers towards whom Telecom Namibia always has its obligation to respond to their needs and with the aim to enhance usage of its vast, countrywide network.

"Our continued quest to rebalance tariffs reinforces Telecom Namibia`s image as a customer oriented organisation and the offer has been initiated keeping in mind the grass root reach of Telecom Namibia in terms of its customer base and thus making the use of Telecom Namibia`s services and products more accessible and affordable for its customers," says the public notice.