8 August 2012

Telecom Namibia, which is celebrating its 20th birthday, is the main sponsor of the 13th Economist Businesswomen Conference which starts at Oshandira Lodge in Oshakati tomorrow.

This annual conference brings together mainly female entrepreneurs who are starting, expanding and/or working to improve their businesses, for a day of networking and professional development.

Over 100 participants are expected to attend the event, which will give them tools they need to move their businesses and careers forward by generating new ideas, making new connections and exploring new opportunities.

Telecom Namibia board member Feitjie Veldskoen, who is billed to open the conference, is expected to re-commit the company to initiatives that encourage women entrepreneurship and empowerment in order to change lives for the better and make a difference to society.

Attendees will also learn from the following presentations by established business leaders and executives:

1. The importance/benefits of strong relationships to grow your business with Nangula Uaandja, Partner: PriceWaterhouseCoopers
2. The power of your brand with Erica Mulondo, National Service Manager, Standard Bank Namibia
3. Money lessons from Lyanla with Afra Schimming-Chase, Founder: Chase & Associates
4. Telecommunication solutions for small businesses with Amanda Hauuanga, Head: Marketing at Telecom Namibia
5. Women and investments with Monica Kalondo, Managing Director: Stimulus Investments
6. The Law of Contract with Frieda Kashi, Legal Practitioner, Law Society of Namibia
7. Innovation and business idea generation with Silas Newaka, Innovation Marketplace Officer, Namibia Business Incubation Centre (NBIC)

“This conference is a platform for women to improve their business and management skills, consequently providing, mentoring, and networking opportunities that are critically needed for the success of their businesses,” said Frans Ndoroma, Managing Director of Telecom Namibia.

“From the very beginning it has been Telecom Namibia's resolve to help the communities we operate in and we are thankful to all our customers and partners who have very sincerely appreciated our efforts over the past 20 years," said Ndoroma.

The Telecom MD added that the annual conference has opened new opportunities for deserving women and has provided them a platform to enhance their skills and believe in their abilities. “Therefore, Telecom Namibia is proud to continue its support to women as wed celebrate a landmark moment in our company’s history,” he said.

Telecom Namibia has been a long-time partner and supporter of the Namibia Businesswomen Projects which organizes the anual Businesswomen Conference, the Katuka Mentorship Programme, the Namibian Businesswomen of the Year Award and the Businesswomen Bursary Fund.

A toast to marking the official launch of Speedlink by the Minister of Information & Communication Technology Joel Kaapanda (second from right) and the MD of Telecom Namibia Frans Ndoroma, Board members Roger Gertze and Feitjie Veldskoen, and Board Chairman Joseph Iita (extreme right).

Telecom Namibia has launched a new broadband service called Speedlink that aims to provide customers with faster and cheaper Internet services.

Minister of Information and Communication Technology Joel Kaapanda officially launched this latest broadband product from Telecom Namibia at a breakfast function held in Windhoek on 31 May 2012.

The Speedlink product is a direct benefit arising from the recently commissioned West Africa Cable System (WACS) of which Telecom Namibia is the landing agent in the country.

Free Speedlink upgrade with SpeedLink, Telecom Namibia upgraded all its existing broadband customers on its ADSL and WiMAX platforms from their current packages to the next higher package. For example, a customer on a 1Mbps (megabits per second) was upgraded to the next 2Mbps package for free.

The implications are that all these customers were upgraded to a higher speed at the same monthly charge, while others were upgraded to a higher speed with a reduction in their monthly charge.

All existing customers were upgraded based on an agreed matrix. Home customers, for example, benefit from 33% link speed improvement on the entry level package and up to 50% on the higher packages. This means that packages are upgraded from 256k to 384k representing 33%, while packages upgraded from 512k to 1024k represent a 100% link improvement. The savings derived from increased speed packages without any costs to customers range from 33% to 50%, and new customers will benefit from 36% up to 41% when they sign up for Speelink packages.

Packages
The new product consists of Speedlink Business and Speedlink Home which enable both business and residential customers to enjoy faster Internet speeds at cheaper monthly rates.

The Speedlink Home range comprises: the entry-level 384k package, priced at N349 per month, and the premium Speedlink Home package, priced at N$949 per month for a 36 months contract, featuring a download speed of up to 2048k.

The other packages are the 512k and 1024k priced at N$549 and N$649 per month respectively, for a 36-month contract.

Packages benefit from unlimited monthly data usage, free modem, web space, voice/fax numbers, fax2email address, on-net voice calls, and up to 2 static IP addresses.

Speedlink Business provides download speed of 512 to 10240kbps and 256 to 2048kbps for upload.

Speedlink Business is equipped to deliver business users consistently high speed connections and value for money. With unlimited usage, businesses can download whatever they need to at all times, without the need to restrict users. Up to 10Mb speeds better equip businesses to efficiently perform data intensive tasks such as sending and receiving large documents, graphics or media files, video conferencing or using web-based software. Faster speeds can bring to life more flexible working with quicker VPN access to internal systems. By using the inclusive IP addresses, businesses can reduce their communications costs with IP and video calling.

1 November 2011

Telecom Namibia wishes to apologise to some of its broadband customers for slow internet downloads from international sites. The problem lies beyond the Namibian borders as a result of a failure on the SEACOM undersea cable and also capacity loss to one of our upstream service providers, Belgacom, in Europe.

Telecom Namibia is doing everything in its power to make alternate arrangements, including an upgrade of its facilities in Keetmanshoop to accommodate redundant capacity to deal with failures of this kind. It is expected that the normal fast internet services will be back within the next three weeks.

We truly apologise for the inconvenience this must have caused. We also call upon all affected customers to exercise patience and understanding as we work diligently around the clock to overcome the problem with our partners.