MAP > Internet Providers in Botswana

Botswana’s government as well as the regulator critical of the Liquid Telecom Joint venture. An effective regulatory reform has turned Botswana’s telecom market into one most liberalized in this region. There have been a service neutral licensing regime that takes into account increasing convergence of the technologies as well as services. A large number of the operators now compete effectively, and in particular in the mobile segment. Although some mobile subscribers have fallen sharply at the end of the year 2016, this country has one of the highest and best penetration rates in the African continent.

A famous use of the multiple SIM cards from the different operators have gone ahead and delayed the introduction of the mobile number portability with telecom regulator not fully convinced if the facility’s economic benefits. In the bid to be able to generate the new revenue streams as well as be able to secure the market share, three mobile network operators, mainly Mascom Wireless, which is an affiliate of the South Africa’s MTN, the Orange Botswana, that is backed by the Orange group and the BTC have gone ahead and joined underdeveloped broadband sector by going ahead and adopting of the 3G, WiMAX and LTE technologies.

In the fixed-line broadband market, they can compete with the large number of the ISPs, some of that went ahead and rolled their wireless access infrastructure. After some time of stagnation, a number of the internet users have gone ahead and risen well in the recent years, and this is largely as a result of the lower prices following enhancement in the international connectivity. Previously, landlocked country has heavily depended on the satellites for the international bandwidth, and on the other countries for the transit capacity to the landing points of the international submarine fiber optic cable systems.

Landing of the additional cables in this region in recent years has improved the great competitive situation in the sector, while the prices for the connectivity have gone on and fallen by up to 70%. Stability, as well as the cheaper cost of the fixed-line broadband services, has continued to attract the subscribers, though the mobile internet has remained the preferred choice for the majority, among a large proportion of the younger people in this country.

Much delayed privatization of the MTC has easily been facilitated by transfer of the network assets and management of the BTN’s involvement in two key submarine cables to the newly created wholesale operator by the name Botswana Fiber Networks. BTC mainly through this process has gone and transformed into the retailer of the various services. IPO got to be completed in the year 2016 on April; There has been considerable interest in 44% of the company that has been made available.