Under the celebratory theme "The Great Namibian Journey" Switch is Fully Mobile, Telecom Namibia officially launched its Switch Mobile road-show in Windhoek on 26 February 2010.

Close to 200 business executives, ICT captains of industry and VIP's attended the launch which was officiated by the Minister of Information and Communication Technology Joel Kaapanda.

"I wish to applaud Telecom Namibia for the excellent idea to take Switch on the road," Minister Kaapanda said.

"The Switch road-show and mini-festivals have the distinct advantage of providing Telecom Namibia with the opportunity to touch base with end users, gather feedback to further improve its Switch products and create further brand and product awareness in the market," he said.

The Switch road-show is a celebratory, joyous event that began February 26 and runs until 24 April 2010, during the first phase covering the Oshikoto, Oshana, Ohangwena and Omusati regions. "The Great Namibian Journey“ SWITCH is Fully Mobile road-show promises to be a fun-filled, information-packed event featuring regional mini-launches, promotional road-shows, cultural 'festivals', competitions, interactive games with the crowd and music performances in the various regions.

The latest celebrations of Switch Mobile come against the background three years ago when it was initially introduced as a fully mobile voice and data service but shortly thereafter its mobile voice component was restricted by Cabinet in February 2007. As a result of the imposed restriction the Switch voice service was confined to certain geographical areas and towns.

However two years later, Government officially lifted the temporary restriction on Telecom Namibia's Switch Mobile voice service on 12 May 2009.

The great news for customers is that the use of the Switch Mobile phone is no longer restricted only to a town where you stay, but allows you to freely roam anywhere in Namibia where the service is available. In view of these positive developments, Managing Director of Telecom Namibia Frans Ndoroma said the lifting of the restriction was a welcome gesture not only for Telecom Namibia in view of the huge investments made to deliver the full service to customers, but was also in the best interest of the industry and consumers.

"The de-restriction of Switch Mobile is a cause for celebration. The Great Namibian Journey" Switch is Fully Mobile road show is a celebration of change and freedom of choice. We have always maintained that a limited mobile service has got no meaning in toda's telecom scenario and is not in the interest of consumers," said Ndoroma.

Quoting from a recent NEPRU report which dealt with price transparency for Namibia's telecommunication sector, Switch remains the cheapest products for all but the passive user basket.

For a low user, who makes on average one call a day and sends one SMS to someone every second day, Telecom Namibia's price reduction has led to SWITCH being the cheapest product for the low user basket at N$19.56 a month.

For a medium user, who makes about four calls a day and sends one SMS day, the top four cheapest products for the medium user basket are occupied by Telecom Namibia's SWITCH products. The cheapest of them being N$84.13 a month.

For a high user, who makes about six calls a day and sends two SMSs a day, Telecom Namibia is the price leader for this basket. The higher user basket would cost a SWITCH easy or time user N$141.71 a month.

The NEPRU reports further points out that for International users, Telecom Namibia's SWITCH products offer the best value for money.

"These are the hard facts about Telecom Namibia's Switch Mobile," Ndoroma added. "That makes this event really a great celebration and for a very good reason," he concluded.

Telecom Namibia's fibre optic network was recently vandalised at two locations in the Grootfontein Constituency of the Otjozondjupa region, disabling fixed and mobile communications services to thousands of customers in Okamatapati and surrounding farms.

The incident took place between Okatjoruu (Otjituuo) and Ongongoro on Tuesday, 24 November 2009, at around 18h35.

Vandals chopped the fibre optic cable with a sharp object some 45km from Okatjoruu towards Ongongoro, damaging 11 of the 24 fibers that run in that cable.

The same cable was again vandalised some 58km from Okatjoruu towards Ongongoro. The vandals also cut down and carried away a telephone pole and a 20 metre long piece of the fibre cable.

Telecom Namibia technicians went in to begin working on the restoration that includes the replacement of a 3km long fibre optic cable in order to restore services. We ask all our affected customers to remain patient while restoration work continues.

It is not the first time that vandals have sliced Telecom Namibia's fibre optic cable in that area, which forms part of the Omaheke backbone ring network between Gobabis via Epukiro to Grootfontein which was completed last year. This new backbone routes allows for new stations at Otjinene, Okondjatu, Okamatapati and Okatjoruu to implement CDMA and WiMAX wireless access systems in these areas for automated and modern services, especially internet services to these rural communities.

Anyone who tampers with, destroys or disrupts Telecom Namibia's network or its components is in violation of state laws and Telecom Namibia will assist with any prosecution to the fullest extent of the law. We again wish to remind the public that Telecom Namibia would award anyone for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for incidents of vandalism to its network in the Grootfontein Constituency or anywhere else in the country.

We urge the residents of that area and all other constituencies across the country to be vigilant and report such criminal acts and to apprehend the culprits should they be known in order for the Law to takes its course.

2 March 2011

The Namibian Communications Commission`s issued a ruling for all licensees and providers of public mobile cellular services to implement a price cap for off-net call prices and call prices to fixed-lines to the level of their on-net prices with effect from the 1st March 2011. It further instructed that off-net prices and prices for calls to fixed-lines may no longer exceed those of on-net calls for each product or service.

Telecom Namibia has welcomed the intervention of the regulator as it ensures customer protection, fair competition among players and long term viability of the industry. High mobile cellular off-net charges have prevented customers from calling across networks, hence restraining competition.

However, the biggest winner in this new development is the customer who will enjoy the freedom to make calls, using any mobile cellular network in the country to make a call to another network, without fearing being charged more for calling outside the network of his/her service provider. It should be stressed that the price cap on off-net mobile cellular calls also applies to calls made by mobile phone users to fixed-lines.

While the ruling of the Namibian Communications Commission (NCC) is not applicable to fixed line originating calls, it has naturally affected all SWITCH voice plans, including text messaging services. In view of this, Telecom Namibia has taken steps to implement the NCC resolution as from the 1^st March 2011, namely:

• All SWITCH postpaid and prepaid plans have been adjusted accordingly to fully comply with the NCC ruling.

• The special rate campaigns currently applicable to both SWITCH calls and short messaging services (SMSs) have been discontinued to allow for a seamless implementation of the NCC ruling.

The price cap on mobile off-net services is clearly much needed as there are some horrendous examples of ludicrous charges being slapped on users for making mobile cellular off-net calls, for the sake of unfair monopoly profits. The cap means this abuse of power will stop.

We are confident that the NCC ruling clearly lives up to the expectations of customers for affordable mobile cellular voice services.