The Botswana Telecommunication Corporation (BTC) is to jump to the modern challenges by end of this month to launch the first ever cyber space telephone directory in the history of this country.
Its 2007 telephone directory, which was launched last Tuesday, will be available on its website for easy excess.
?We are going to create a website so that people can access through computers wherever they are,? BTC chief executive officer, Vincent Seretse, said.
The move is one of the major innovative initiatives since the establishment of the corporation in 1980. The move comes closer to earth.com, the NASA satellites powered website, which has all the streets and locations around the world.
?We are going to refine it so that people will have a hard copy and also access it from the website,? Seretse said, adding that it will be available on-line from March 31, this year.
For the first time ever, the BTC designed and produced its telephone directory which is the biggest and the most refined copy.
?This is the first directory produced internally by BTC. And it was produced in a short space of time. I think we have done a splendid work. It looks nice and is more readable? he added.
The new directory has new features such as spacing of numbers, glossy pages and it is well structured.
The move comes at a time when the BTC?s relations with its previous publishers collapsed, leading to a very acrimonious case before the High Court in Lobatse over the use of the word Yellow Pages.
The court ruled that nobody has exclusive use of the word ?Yellow Pages?.
?Naturally, we retain our right to continue calling our classified section the Yellow Pages. As a result, we anticipate that others may make use of those words in competing publications as some have done before,? Seretse said.
