Technology

Technology (98)

Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) in collaboration with Netstar Namibia and Standard Bank Namibia, have launched an In-Car Wi-Fi and vehicle tracking service on vehicles purchased through Standard Bank.

The City of Windhoek councillors have approved a resolution to implement the long-standing fiber project, a development which could boost its plans to become a smart city.

Paratus Telecom on Monday commissioned the Armada Data Centre built at a cost of N$123 million funded through listed bonds on the Namibian Stock Exchange in which the Government Institutions Pension Fund participated. 

The Bank of Namibia has revealed that it has adopted technology in some of its functions, including the deployment of virtual bots to improve its financial intelligence monitoring function.

The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRAN) says about 1400 out of 1800 schools, translating to 78%, in the country are without Information and Communication Technology infrastructure.

Telecom Namibia, with an investment of over N$148 million in fiber deployment, hopes to accelerate the roll out of fiber to pass and connect thousands of homes, improving the coverage of their existing 10,676 km (65.2% of national coverage) national fiber backbone. 

Namibia’s looming mandatory mobile SIM card registration requirements will enable the country to finally implement telecommunications number portability, two years after publishing the regulations, the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) has said.

Namibians will soon know if the country is ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) amid indications that a team set up to investigate Namibia’s readiness will submit its findings to Cabinet at the end of the month.  

Google’s Equiano cable landed in Namibia last Friday, a move that is expected to double the country’s internet connectivity capacity.

Below are some facts you need to know about the cable:

  • Equiano cable is the third private international cable owned by Google and the 14th subsea cable invested by Google.
  •  Equiano connects Portugal and South Africa, running along the West Coast of Africa, with branching units along the way that can be used to extend connectivity to additional African countries.
  • Like all Google private subsea cables which carry the names of historical luminaries, Equiano is named after Olaudah Equiano, a Nigerian-born writer and abolitionist who was enslaved as a boy.
  • Equiano cable is state-of-the-art infrastructure based on space-division multiplexing (SDM) technology, with approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve this region. 
  • The cable features 12 fibre pairs and has a design capacity of 144Tbps.
  • Equiano will have a direct impact on internet connectivity in all the countries in which it lands, resulting in faster internet speeds, lower latency, and lower wholesale and retail internet prices.
  • Equiano will be the first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fiber-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching. This greatly simplifies the allocation of cable capacity, giving us the flexibility to add and reallocate it in different locations as needed.
  •  Alcatel Submarine Network was awarded the contract to manufacture and install the cable.
  • Equiano will indirectly create 21 000 jobs in Namibia according to a Regional Economic Impact Assessment commissioned by Google and conducted by Africa Practice with economic modelling assistance from Genesis Analytics.
  • The expected increase in broadband penetration and adoption by consumers, businesses, government institutions and educational establishments is expected to lead to savings of CO2 emissions of 21 kilo tonnes in Namibia.
  • Namibia is expected to initially use only 0.5% bandwidth of the cable.
  • Paratus and Telecom Namibia are the landing partners for the Equiano cable in Namibia .

Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) has announced the start of its voluntary sim card registration campaign, which will run until the 1st of January 2023, targeting its over 2 million subscribers.

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