Mascom Wireless Botswana, the country’s trail-blazing mobile network outfit, launched the world’s most advanced communication solution, 3G and 3.5G technology, which will give Botswana a global edge by having the fastest mobile broadband.
The new product, 3G technologies, enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.
The services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, roaming capability all in a mobile environment.
Mascom Wireless’ Chief Marketing Officer, Dzene Makhwade ÔÇô Seboni, revealed that the new technology is going to enable the Mascom customers to surf the World Wide Web in a smooth and user friendly way through broadband high speed connectivity.
“It will allow video calls to be performed between Mascom 3G enabled customers and will open up the door to a larger portfolio of Internet/Data based services that will put Botswana more closely in touch with the overall digital world,” she said.
The new service will pitch Botswana to a select few countries in Africa where high speed HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) network infrastructure and its strong impact will be clearly felt in the day ÔÇôto- day lives of Batswana.
“With this new technology, Mascom customers can now access internet at the speed of up to 1.8Mbits/second,” she said.
The speed will allow the rollout of the video calls between 3G enabled handset, High Speed Internet Access from 3G & 3.5G enabled handsets, as well as 3G&3.5G PC Data Cards.
“The remaining service that can be offered in addition includes, video/audio streaming, mobile TV which is online broadcasting, High Speed push-email as well as Multimedia Instant Messaging,” she stated.
The Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Ricardo Luz, assured that all customers having 3G enabled handset will be able to use 3G & 3.5G Fast Internet Speed and experience Video calls at a value added price. All customers with 3G & 3.5G PC Data Cards will also be able to use 3G & 3.5G Fast Internet Speed when surfing via their laptops and desktops. “Video Calls will be provisioned automatically and routed through 3G & 3.5G. On the other hand, all PC Data Cards will be provisioned automatically and routed through 3G & 3.5G where available,” he explained.
Luz said people and overall professionals will have in this technology an interactive media door to access local and foreign contests; a cost efficient way to communicate and exchange heavy amounts of data with anyone in any part of the world at the boosting speed of 3G and 3.5G.
“This new technology is very convenient as the users can access internet anywhere. It also provide wireless offer thus making it more flexible and easy to use. Its flexibility is good in a way that it is not restricted to one device. The initial coverage of Greater Gaborone corresponds at this stage to an overall investment of above P50 million,” he said.
This business bet that Mascom has undertaken with the deployment of such capital expense intensive technology is expected to be a profitable one. Nevertheless, besides their normal bottom line concerns, the leverage of the Internet penetration in Botswana to current Europe level in the next 3 ÔÇô 4 years, is expected to be one of the major legacies of this new Mascom’s investment, thus giving back to their loyal customers and Batswana in general.
In order to achieve this goal, Mascom has actively developed a price attractive portfolio of Internet access and data packages that will, in their view, contribute decisively to the democratization of Broadband Internet access in Botswana.
They have proved that they are ‘Number One’ by taking the first steps towards the boost of the info-telecommunication industry in Botswana.
