Zimbabwe: Aquiva Wireless to Roll Out 4G Technology
Aquiva Wireless says it plans to roll out a new standard for wireless data communications technology that will push forward the growth of the country’s telecommunications industry.
The company’s chief executive, Mr Brian Maphosa, said the next enabling technology would be Long Term Evolution, a technology that is only available across 4G radio wavelengths, but offers much greater speed and capacity. He said they would over the next three years invest up to US$80 million in establishing nationwide presence, expanding its service and leveraging new technology because data rather than voice would dominate the way people and businesses conduct their affairs in the near future.
“I don’t think we have a choice about going for LTE in this country, which is why Aquiva proposes to make an impact in that space,” he added.
He noted that the speed of LTE rollout will depend on the realities of the market, the level of broadband penetration and last mile connectivity.
“As soon as the infrastructure limitations have been overcome, Aquiva will be ready to bring LTE services to its customers,” Mr Maphosa said.
He also said the company is in the process of installing metro fibre, a rapidly expanding network in all major business centres.
“Metro fibre is a term for networking a number of buildings or separate business parks in a city, analogous to the network within a modern office block. With speeds up to 1 000Mbps it enables faster access to internet and data transfer for clients who, once they have experienced it, can’t imagine how they ever managed on traditional bandwidth,” he added.
Aquiva has signed an agreement to be able to connect its clients to the Broadband Global Area Network using Immarsat to provide global coverage and is focusing on satisfying demand in Harare and Bulawayo, but the future of communications in Zimbabwe will soon depend heavily on these technologies.
“There are opportunities in every sector but we have barely scratched the surface with e-commerce, let alone e-tourism, e-banking, e-health, e-education and e- everything else! If you look at the statistics Zimbabwe is one of the top 10 countries in Africa in terms of data penetration, but only a small percentage of the population is using the internet at the moment.”
Mr Maphosa said the industry is all about change and innovation.
“One really has to keep at the forefront of technical development, and that is what we are looking at over the next three years.
“We do not intend to be just another African telecoms brand, rather we want to be recognised as one of the leaders in virtual private networks and enterprise solutions for business and high speed high volume connectivity for families and individuals as well as the dominant player in VoIP.”
Credit: The Herald
