Tuesday 25 September 2007

Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC)

Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) was established in 1980 to provide, develop, operate and manage Botswana's national and international telecommunications services. BTC is a parastatal in which the Botswana government holds 100% equity.

In 1996, an amendment of the BTC Act repealed the monopoly of BTC and introduced indirect competition through two cellular joint venture consortiums, Mascom Wireless and Vista Communications (now Orange).

The Act further established a regulatory authority and liberalised the market with particular emphasis on customer premises equipment and value added services, many of which are now in full competition to BTC.

Products and Services
The Corporation’s range of communications products and services include wired and wireless networks, basic voice telephony and voice messaging, Internet Protocol (IP) based networks and solutions, high‑speed Internet access, data networks, customer premises equipment (PABXs), optical fibre connectivity solutions and online directory services.

The Corporation's extensive range of services is built around its national networks comprising wired and wireless connections serving 140 000 (31st March 2005) customer access line connections.

The introduction of basic rate Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) was undertaken to address the growing telecommunications requirements especially in the business sector. ISDN offers integrated speech, data, text and video services with end to end digital connectivity through a standardised access point. This is in addition to the benefits and convenience of faster speeds, improved communication quality and reduced operating cost.

BTC also offers value added services in addition to basic telephony. These include; call diversion and forwarding, three party conferencing, abbreviated dialing, call waiting, international and national call barring, alarm call, 0800 toll free services and voice messaging.

Data communications services by BTC are available through a managed data network on a point to point and point – to a multi point that can be provided to customers at their bandwidth requirements. These services are Frame Relay (BotsFrame), leased lines and ATM.

he Corporation also provides high capacity access to Internet for major corporate customers and Internet Service providers (ISPs). Points of presence (POPS) are now established in five centres around the country enabling Internet customers to dial at the cost of a local call. Click to read more about BTC products and services

No comments:

More BSE Headlines