Botswana`s biggest GSM service provider, Mascom, is to expand its network in and around Francistown in the next three months and has chosen Ericsson as its supplier of choice for cellular equipment and services.
"This deal will increase our footprint in Botswana and ensure we can offer the widest coverage as well as the best service at the highest possible quality," says Jose Ferreira, Mascom CEO.
Apart from the required mobile switches, base stations and controllers, Ericsson is to provide training, network capacity, performance monitoring, revenue consulting, and business consulting services.
"The additional switching capacity and resultant redundancy from the Francistown installation will make the entire network more stable," says Thiagesapillai Anpan, Ericsson customer accounts VP.
Anpan says Ericsson relationship with Mascom dates back to when the operator began building its network in Botswana in 1998. "Mascom has around 70% penetration in Botswana and is enjoying significant growth in the area of data services," he says.
"Mascom has been innovative in offering a variety of SMS-based data services," says Anpan. He cites as an example Mascom`s introduction of a roaming facility for pre-paid customers who through an agreement with Visa can top up their pre-paid accounts while roaming in neighbouring countries like SA.
The Botswana deal comes just a month after Ericsson won cellular expansion contracts in Austria and China. Mobilkom awarded Ericsson a contract to supply radio base stations for the expansion of its UMTS network, while Sichuan Unicom and Sichuan Mobile signed contracts to expand their mobile networks.
Share
