Internet connectivity remains high
Internet connectivity has become the basic need in the current Covid- 19 induced economic factors which require reduced human interaction, but connectivity costs are increasingly high due to high infrastructure costs and increasing cost of power.
Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority Chief Executive Officer, Martin Mokgware told the Public Hearing Committee on Tuesday that the escalating costs of internet connectivity are due to many factors including cost of electricity and increasing transit costs. “BPC continually increases their prices. We have high costs of grid power sourced from Botswana Power Corporation.”
Internet connectivity costs are also largely affected by high costs of international bandwidth and internet connectivity due to multiple redundant routes and transit via South Africa, Namibia and onward connectivity to London. “Transit costs to bring internet to Botswana have been increasing. We source internet through leased lines which pass through other countries such as Namibia and South Africa. These countries charge us infrastructure and deployment is also costly because we import everything.”
However, he said mobile networks have absorbed some of the burden by not passing on the cost to customers in some instances, thus ensuring affordability and accessibility. Despite these increasing
input costs, we have been continually reducing prices over the years so that Batswana can access internet.” Last year, BOCRA reduced broadband prices by up to 55 percent for some packages and mobile network operators were encouraged to reduce prices. Mascom reduced its prices by about 22 percent for its 30- day packages, Orange Botswana reduced by up to 70 percent for its All My Internet bundles. However, the public owned Botswana Telecommunications Corporation has not reduced its prices but remains competitive as they were already low.
BOCRA targets to achieve 99 percent network coverage and currently are at 98 percent. Internet penetration to households stands at 22 percent while fixed internet penetration is 4,5 percent. “Fixed internet penetration is still low because BTC is the main operator, but we hope it will increase.” Currently mobile penetration in Botswana stands at 191 percent of the population while mobile broadband penetration stands at 112 percent. However Mobile broadband affordability stands at 2.9 percent of GNI per capita.