18 September 2010

Telecom Namibia has announced new tariffs for the 2010/11 financial year with effect from 1 October 2010.

All international call charges will be kept unchanged. However, a tariffs promotional campaign to selected international destinations will be introduced for a period of 3 months.

Starting from 1 October 2010, Telecom will conduct a three months promotion for both fixed/Switch to fixed and fixed/Switch to mobile calls to international destinations at a flat rate of N$2.49 per minute. International calls are charged on a per minute basis with an initial call set-up charge of 85 cents.

The promotions includes international destinations such as RSA Mobile (peak), Angola, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA and the rest of the world.

The rate for calls to RSA Mobile during off-peak time remains at N$1.99, while call charges to RSA Fixed remain at N$1.99 per minute (peak) and N$1.19 per minute (off-peak).

Charges for calls destined to neighbouring destination, i.e. Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, remain unchanged.

ISDN and basic telephone line rental charges will be increased by average 9% for both business and residential customers, while site sharing & co-location rental chargeswill go up by average 9% from 1 October 2010.

"It is important to note that, except for the above-mentioned adjustments, no other tariffs have been adjusted," the company`s Department of Corporate Communications and the Public Relation said in a recent public notice.

The adjustments are in line with the ongoing tariff rebalancing process initiated by Telecom Namibia a few years ago. Tariffs rebalancing is the process of aligning the tariffs of services to the costs of providing them and eliminating cross-subsidising of services.

The tariffs rebalancing is based on the unique position of Telecom Namibia in the country`s telecommunication market as the only fixed line operator with nationwide presence and being the largest and fully integrated network of the country with the aim to give more and more advantage to customers towards whom Telecom Namibia always has its obligation to respond to their needs and with the aim to enhance usage of its vast, countrywide network.

"Our continued quest to rebalance tariffs reinforces Telecom Namibia`s image as a customer oriented organisation and the offer has been initiated keeping in mind the grass root reach of Telecom Namibia in terms of its customer base and thus making the use of Telecom Namibia`s services and products more accessible and affordable for its customers," says the public notice.

Under the celebratory theme "The Great Namibian Journey" Switch is Fully Mobile, Telecom Namibia officially launched its Switch Mobile road-show in Windhoek on 26 February 2010.

Close to 200 business executives, ICT captains of industry and VIP's attended the launch which was officiated by the Minister of Information and Communication Technology Joel Kaapanda.

"I wish to applaud Telecom Namibia for the excellent idea to take Switch on the road," Minister Kaapanda said.

"The Switch road-show and mini-festivals have the distinct advantage of providing Telecom Namibia with the opportunity to touch base with end users, gather feedback to further improve its Switch products and create further brand and product awareness in the market," he said.

The Switch road-show is a celebratory, joyous event that began February 26 and runs until 24 April 2010, during the first phase covering the Oshikoto, Oshana, Ohangwena and Omusati regions. "The Great Namibian Journey“ SWITCH is Fully Mobile road-show promises to be a fun-filled, information-packed event featuring regional mini-launches, promotional road-shows, cultural 'festivals', competitions, interactive games with the crowd and music performances in the various regions.

The latest celebrations of Switch Mobile come against the background three years ago when it was initially introduced as a fully mobile voice and data service but shortly thereafter its mobile voice component was restricted by Cabinet in February 2007. As a result of the imposed restriction the Switch voice service was confined to certain geographical areas and towns.

However two years later, Government officially lifted the temporary restriction on Telecom Namibia's Switch Mobile voice service on 12 May 2009.

The great news for customers is that the use of the Switch Mobile phone is no longer restricted only to a town where you stay, but allows you to freely roam anywhere in Namibia where the service is available. In view of these positive developments, Managing Director of Telecom Namibia Frans Ndoroma said the lifting of the restriction was a welcome gesture not only for Telecom Namibia in view of the huge investments made to deliver the full service to customers, but was also in the best interest of the industry and consumers.

"The de-restriction of Switch Mobile is a cause for celebration. The Great Namibian Journey" Switch is Fully Mobile road show is a celebration of change and freedom of choice. We have always maintained that a limited mobile service has got no meaning in toda's telecom scenario and is not in the interest of consumers," said Ndoroma.

Quoting from a recent NEPRU report which dealt with price transparency for Namibia's telecommunication sector, Switch remains the cheapest products for all but the passive user basket.

For a low user, who makes on average one call a day and sends one SMS to someone every second day, Telecom Namibia's price reduction has led to SWITCH being the cheapest product for the low user basket at N$19.56 a month.

For a medium user, who makes about four calls a day and sends one SMS day, the top four cheapest products for the medium user basket are occupied by Telecom Namibia's SWITCH products. The cheapest of them being N$84.13 a month.

For a high user, who makes about six calls a day and sends two SMSs a day, Telecom Namibia is the price leader for this basket. The higher user basket would cost a SWITCH easy or time user N$141.71 a month.

The NEPRU reports further points out that for International users, Telecom Namibia's SWITCH products offer the best value for money.

"These are the hard facts about Telecom Namibia's Switch Mobile," Ndoroma added. "That makes this event really a great celebration and for a very good reason," he concluded.

Telecom Namibia's fibre optic network was recently vandalised at two locations in the Grootfontein Constituency of the Otjozondjupa region, disabling fixed and mobile communications services to thousands of customers in Okamatapati and surrounding farms.

The incident took place between Okatjoruu (Otjituuo) and Ongongoro on Tuesday, 24 November 2009, at around 18h35.

Vandals chopped the fibre optic cable with a sharp object some 45km from Okatjoruu towards Ongongoro, damaging 11 of the 24 fibers that run in that cable.

The same cable was again vandalised some 58km from Okatjoruu towards Ongongoro. The vandals also cut down and carried away a telephone pole and a 20 metre long piece of the fibre cable.

Telecom Namibia technicians went in to begin working on the restoration that includes the replacement of a 3km long fibre optic cable in order to restore services. We ask all our affected customers to remain patient while restoration work continues.

It is not the first time that vandals have sliced Telecom Namibia's fibre optic cable in that area, which forms part of the Omaheke backbone ring network between Gobabis via Epukiro to Grootfontein which was completed last year. This new backbone routes allows for new stations at Otjinene, Okondjatu, Okamatapati and Okatjoruu to implement CDMA and WiMAX wireless access systems in these areas for automated and modern services, especially internet services to these rural communities.

Anyone who tampers with, destroys or disrupts Telecom Namibia's network or its components is in violation of state laws and Telecom Namibia will assist with any prosecution to the fullest extent of the law. We again wish to remind the public that Telecom Namibia would award anyone for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for incidents of vandalism to its network in the Grootfontein Constituency or anywhere else in the country.

We urge the residents of that area and all other constituencies across the country to be vigilant and report such criminal acts and to apprehend the culprits should they be known in order for the Law to takes its course.