Namibia's premiere information and communication technologies event " Telecom Namibia Annual ICT Summit 2009, takes place on July 8-9, 2009 in Windhoek. This year's ICT Summit, being one of the most important events in ICT area in Namibia, will be held under the theme: "ICT: Visualising the Future " Confronting the Crisis."

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the backbone of modern era. Innovation and investment in the telecommunications sector are key enablers of Namibia´s economic transformation to a stronger and more productive, knowledge-based economy. Strategic use of ICTs is helping create social and economic change in health, education, culture, and to increase civic engagement in many countries of the world. As more people gain access to ICTs, the challenge is turning this capacity into community capital in the form of better educated citizens, more prosperous businesses, higher quality of life and better access to services.

The main objective of ICT Summit is to join efforts of all ICT market participants, policy- and decision-makers, heads of stakeholder institutions and regional and international organisations corporate executives, high-level representatives from government, community organisations and for popularisation of ICT application as a development tool, and to attract attention of the broad public to the ICT achievements and discuss practical issues to fully exploit benefits from more effective use of ICTs. The ICT Summit is therefore not a trade show, but an important platform for key decision makers to engage in high level networking opportunities.

While visualising the future is always a chancy proposition, the theme itself is an act of imagination and affirmation of a future that is being shaped by ICTs.

Human beings will always persist in imagining the future because we are motivated by what could be as much as by what has been. We persist because we have a stake in the future. The assertion is that the future will be a better one — and we intend to live in it.

The theme also has an element of the current global economic crisis which has inadvertently also affected the ICTs sector globally and locally. However, the global crisis could provide entrepreneurial opportunities for budding ICT businesses, which in turn can power economic recovery. Given that innovation is the key to recovery, ICTs have contributed consistently as a high-growth sector in its own right, and can now power economic recovery across all sectors.

Alongside the valuable networking opportunities, an innovative and interactive conference programme runs throughout the course of the event. From year to year the Telecom Namibia ICT Summit draws the increasing attention of interested parties and has become one of the main events in the sphere of ICT in Namibia. Last year more than 600 delegates participated in the work of the Summit and this year is not an exception.

The number of VIP delegates is anticipated to be close to 800 which will include ICT experts, senior government officials, corporate executives from across Namibia, SADC and internationally. Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Honourable Joel Kaapanda, is billed to officially open this important upcoming event.

The forthcoming ICT Summit will be action-based and futuristic, with international and local guest speakers and plenary sessions to inspire and challenge us to realise the vision of what ICTs can do for Namibia. How Namibia can tap into the benefits of information technology to enhance all aspects of our lives business, leisure, culture and our environment.

Telecom Namibia has joined a multinational consortium of leading telecommunications operators to help fund a multi-million undersea optic fibre cable to be known as West Africa Cable System (WACS).

This follows the signing of a Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) and Supply Contract for the implementation of the West Africa Cable System (WACS) in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 8 April 2009.

WACS is a submarine fibre optic cable that will link countries in Southern Africa, Western Africa and Europe, with at least 3.84 terabits per second (Tbp/s) of international bandwidth. Planned landing points include Namibia, South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d´Ivoire, Cape Verde, Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. The landings in Namibia, the DRC, the Republic of Congo and Togo will provide the first direct connections for these countries to the global submarine cable network.

Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks has been contracted to supply the 14,000 km long cable system with all associated landing points, which is expected to be ready for service by 2011.

Alcatel-Lucent specialises in the development, manufacture, installation, management and maintenance of state-of-the-art undersea telecommunications cable networks.

Costing about US$600-million (about N$5,420 million), the project has brought together a multitude of nations and some of the world´s most influential telecommunications players in a joint effort to use state-of-the-art technology in linking more people more efficiently than ever before.

The West Africa Cable System represents a significant telecommunications infrastructure investment through a joint effort of a number of African and Global operators and will have ample capacity to serve the region`s international connectivity needs for many years to come.

The telecommunications companies that have signed the WACS Construction and Maintenance Agreement include Telecom Namibia, Angola Telecom, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, MTN, Portugal Telecom, Sotelco, Tata Communications, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom.

WACS will provide Africa with faster and better connectivity to Europe and the world at far cheaper rates; savings which will be passed onto consumers.

An investment level of 2% for Telecom Namibia is envisaged in this 3.84 Tbp/s 4 fibre Cape Town to the UK system, with an own landing point at Swakopmund. Telecom Namibia´s share of that capacity would be sufficient for the country`s needs for more than 10 years, according to Wessel van der Vyver, General Manager for International Services at Telecom Namibia.

"The agreements signed make the WACS broadband sea cable a reality for us, and with it access to much cheaper, much faster fibre optic links between countries in the south and west of the continent to the rest of the world," Van der Vyver said.

For further details, please contact:

Oiva Angula

Senior Manager: Corporate Communications and Public Relations

Tel: (+264 61) 201 2448

Fax: (+264 61) 201 2074

Cell: (+264 61) 81128 7886

Switch: (+264 61) 60100 9009

E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.telecom.na

"Female engineers aren't men in skirts. Rather, they've their own set of needs, dreams, ambitions and God-given talents that they bring to their role as engineers."

These are the inspiring words of Telecom Namibia's General Manager of Service Provisioning and Assurance, Chie Wasserfall, when she delivered a motivational talk to a group of female engineering students at the Polytechnic of Namibia in Windhoek on March 12.

A former senior lecturer of engineering at the Polytechnic of Namibia and one of the notable few successful female engineers in this male-dominated industry in Namibia, Wasserfall was invited as one of the guest speakers to mark the "Women in Engineering Day" hosted by the Polytechnic's School of Engineering yesterday.

Latest figures show that of the 847 professional engineers, corporate engineers, engineering technicians and their counterparts-in-training registered with the Engineering Council of Namibia as of 31 January 2009, only 11% of them are women.

With only a very few female engineers in the country, Wasserfall cautioned the budding female engineers that pursuing a career in this field is not easy, but possible with dedication and hard work.

"Let me assure you that once you step out and complete your degree, there will be a job. It all depends entirely on you. Increasing globalisation, new markets, and changing employment patterns also mean that an engineering career is now a truly international one," Wasserfall said.

She urged the students to defy all the stereotypical prejudices, biases and cultural viewpoints that portray women as being incapable of entering this male-dominated field of engineering.

Wasserfall added that the ways in which to break this mould of being branded as "just a woman" is to use their inherent strengths and abilities by thinking "outside the box" as engineers.

"Stay being woman, don't try to be a man. The biggest mistake that a woman would do is to act what exactly stereotyping society expects us to do. However, never ever use your woman side to get want you want because in a male dominated environment, it just won't work," she said.

"In the end, it's women themselves who set boundaries on what they can achieve. As long as they dream and pursue, then they can attain anything they set out to accomplish. There are many advantages to being female engineers and scientists. Let's leverage them well."

The female engineering students were visibly spurred by Wasserfall's powerful talk and described it as inspiring and valuable.

"I believe there's no limit as to what we women engineers can do and I feel we can achieve greater things," said third-year B-Tech Electronics student Findano Shikonda.

"Out of a class of 30 engineering students we're only four girls! There are very few female students because they're afraid and think that engineering is difficult. But that isn't the case," added Peneyambeko Haifeke, a first-year engineering student.

The celebration of "Women in Engineering Day" was jointly organised by the Polytechnic of Namibia and Women in Engineering International to serve as a platform for networking, mentoring, boost self-confidence to overcome prejudice against women in engineering.