Paratus Namibia infrastrucure.
Misperceptions prevail around this subject, but Namibia is making great strides in terms of telecommunications infrastructure investment, with one local company in particular helping to shape the connectivity landscape.
While the country may lag behind some of its Southern African Development Community peers, such as South Africa and Mauritius, Namibia scores significantly higher than the African average in infrastructure-driven metrics, with the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) ICT Development Index placing Namibia above larger economies like Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria.
An example of the type of investments being made is that of Paratus Namibia, which has recently installed another 600km of fibre, bringing its total fibre network to over 5 000km.
This project also exemplifies the company’s ongoing and aggressive expansion of its mobile, wireless and data centre infrastructure as Paratus Namibia strives for improved connectivity and a shift into first-world connectivity for everyone in the country.
One of the company’s most significant infrastructure projects has been the roll-out of the Paratus mobile network, representing an investment of N$600 million over the past 24 months. Built using current-generation technology rather than legacy infrastructure, the network is being expanded nationally to increase coverage and capacity and extend Paratus services to more people across the country.
Managing Director of Paratus Namibia, Andrew Hall, says: “The 595km of fibre we added in the past year is a good indication of the scale at which we are building. That said, a strong and resilient network is about much more than fibre alone. It means having different technologies, alternative routes and sufficient capacity so that customers are not dependent on a single point of connection.”
This resilience extends beyond Namibia. Paratus has access to both the Equiano and WACS submarine cable systems on Africa’s west coast and is the landing partner for Equiano in Namibia. Its own Trans-Kalahari fibre route connects Windhoek to Johannesburg, providing another route out of the country and onward access to east coast submarine cable systems, including SEACOM.
Within Namibia, redundancy is built into the network wherever possible. Paratus uses two backhaul providers to connect its points of presence, predominantly using its own infrastructure as the primary route and an independent provider as the secondary route.
Hall says this level of network diversity is increasingly important as businesses, households and services become more dependent on reliable connectivity. “Businesses cannot afford to lose access to the systems and applications they depend on every day. The same is increasingly true for households and communities. Our job is to ensure the infrastructure behind any connection is strong enough, diverse enough and has the capacity to keep pace with demand.”
The next phase of the Paratus Namibia infrastructure programme includes further expansion of the national mobile network, a significant capacity upgrade to its point-to-multipoint fixed wireless network, continued fibre expansion and the Data Hall 2 expansion project.
Paratus plans to invest millions of Namibian dollars over the next few years to continue expanding its footprint, increasing capacity and building greater resilience across the network.
