Windhoek
Residents of Finkelstein Manor and Finkenstein Village outside Windhoek will now be able to enjoy world-class internet connectivity after being the recipients of the first-ever Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connection in Namibia. The FTTH was made possible by Paratus Telecom, which says it is the first 100 percent privately owned Pan-African operator to turn on FTTH in the country.
Developers of Finkenstein Manor and Finkenstein Village have partnered with Paratus Telecom to create the first-ever Namibian digital village, providing every home owner with a gateway to the digital age. According to Paratus Telecom, it has already started to deploy fibre to 550 homes and will be providing an all-inclusive turn-key service solution to residents.
Speaking from his Botswana office, Paratus Telecom Group CEO, Barney Harmse, says residents will now be able to enjoy endless value-added broadband services and connectivity solutions over a state-of-the-art fibre optic network.
Harmse believes this is the first FTTH deployment in Africa for a privately owned Pan-African operator, built on own infrastructure.
“The entire solution is an end-to-end solution from Paratus Telecom, completely independent of any third-party infrastructure. Looking forward, we plan to invest a total of more than N$150 million on infrastructure in Namibia over the next three years of which N$100 million will be invested in fibre infrastructure,” he explained.
Finkenstein Manor and Finkenstein Village developer, Gerdus Burmeister, said the fibre infrastructure will eventually be deployed to more than 1000 homes. “Compared to any other connectivity medium, fibre reigns supreme. Due to its inherent speed, capacity and reliability, fibre will now enable us to implement a fully comprehensive access control and security solution, which will include CCTV on the estate – one of our primary objectives. Residents will now also be able to enjoy access to triple-play connectivity including voice, video and data solutions,” he stated.
Paratus Telecom is an African telecommunications company with the head office based in Windhoek. It also has fully-licensed offices in Angola, Botswana, Zambia and South Africa and delivers products and services to 22 African countries.
Paratus Telecom was founded as Internet Technologies Namibia in 2005 as the first privately and 100 percent wholly-owned Namibian telecommunications operator. The group turnover for 2016 was about N$1 billion and it plans to grow to N$1.2-billion for year ending February 2017. The total budget for Africa over the next five years is a staggering US$110 million.
Since inception, Paratus Telecom has established a prolific network extending across the entire Namibia, with additional international points-of-presence located in Johannesburg, Lisbon (Portugal) as well as London (UK).