BOFINET's FOOTPRINTS IN THE LAST 10 YEARS

BOFINET's FOOTPRINTS IN THE LAST 10 YEARS

Since its formation in 2013, BoFiNet has been making strides in its mandate to provide and operate the telecommunications backbone network infrastructure that drives connectivity in Botswana. On the eve of its 10th anniversary, which falls in October this year, the company’s Technical Executive, Mr Mpho Koolese, reflects on some of the major achievements of the last nine (9) years, as well as what’s in the pipeline for the future.

“BoFiNet remains the backbone that makes it possible for Internet Service Providers and Public Telephony Operators in Botswana to provide voice and data services to end-users. We own and operate two (2) types of ICT infrastructure in the country; an intricate fibre network that runs nearly 12,000km across the length and breadth of Botswana, as well as transmission towers for wireless services. We operate over 150 transmission towers across the country, and the mobile phone operators co-locate on those towers for their own services”.

“At inception, we had the vision to take up shareholding in the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC). Through WIOCC, we are part owners on the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy), a 10,000km submarine cable system along the east coast of Africa; and the West Africa Cable System (WACS), which is a 14,530km ultra-high-capacity submarine cable linking Europe, West Africa, and South Africa. These cable systems are directly connected to the London Global Switch and service voice, data, video and internet needs of Africa. The systems are also set up to carry services acting as "worker protection”, with traffic being distributed evenly between the two (2). The investment in both cables allows BoFiNet to offer Botswana minimal to no connectivity interruptions as the two (2) links act as back-up to one another; should one link fail, traffic will be routed through the other. Our terrestrial network is connected to these cables through South Africa and Namibia”.

“The BoFiNet network has positioned Botswana as a transit hub to the rest of southern Africa. According to the most recent United Nations estimates, there are 69,769,239 people living in Southern Africa. This fosters a favourable climate for BoFiNet to serve as the regional transit hub, lowering latencies for regional traffic in Southern Africa”.

“On the ground, we have been working with the Government of Botswana to bridge the digital divide by connecting 503 villages in Botswana. To date, BoFiNet has connected 206 villages. The remaining 297 villages will be connected through our SmartBots project in the near future”.

We are at the completion stages of constructing our strategic national data centre, the Digital Delta Data Centre. This is a 400-rack capacity, Tier III Uptime Institute-certified facility that will work as the nerve centre for content and connectivity in Botswana. Through the data centre, we envisage bringing content providers who were initially based mostly in Europe and the United States of America closer to Botswana. Our ultimate goal is to attract the biggest content providers such as Google, Meta, YouTube, etc. Through the data centre, BoFiNet will deliver the following:

· High-speed connectivity and enhanced user experience

· Mass storage and computing capabilities. This will provide create a data boom that will require mining, thus building Botswana’s Data hosting environment.

· Introduction of cloud services

· Development of Internet of things (IOT) and next gen services

“BoFiNet is ready to facilitate the digitalisation agenda as the trusted Government technology partner. Our drive to expand our footprint and position ourselves as the leading enabler of the ICT ecosystem within Botswana and Africa is unwavering”.

Mr Mpho Koolese oversees BoFiNet’s national and international network assets as the Technical Executive. He joined BoFiNet in 2013 from Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC). Through his intensive work in optical networks, he is one of the pioneers of the East African Submarine System (EASSy) and West Africa Cable System (WACS) submarine cables, where he currently sits on the management committees. He has over 19 years of managerial experience in the field of technology planning and operations. Mr Koolese has studied and attained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Botswana, a Management Development Programme from the University of Stellenbosch, and a Master’s Degree in Strategic Management from the University of Derby.

Cherian Thomas

Vice President - Marketing & Sales, NMSWorks Software

1 年

Congratulations and well done, Mpho. You and your team at BoFiNet can be proud of the achievements over the past decade. Best wishes for the years ahead!!

Todzai Kaguvi Chabudapasi

Regional Manager @ Axis Solutions Africa | Business Development, Sales

1 年

The visionary outlook is very insightful in how this will underpin a Knowledge economy.

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Tefo Loago Mokoboto

Service Technician | Office Automation Technician | IT Support

1 年

Very interesting ????

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Zainul Abideen

Head - Business Development International - OSS BSS at NMSWorks Software (P) Ltd.,

1 年

Congratulation and Appreciation from NMSWorks team Mpho Sir

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