BOFINET BITS & BYTES, Vol 1 Issue 3

Commercial Executive’s

Foreword

I am delighted to share with you our third issue of Bits & Bytes newsletter, which highlights some of the key initiatives and milestones we have achieved as a company in recent months. As we continue to navigate these unprecedented and yet exciting times, I am pleased to say that our team remains focused on achieving our strategic objectives and delivering exceptional value to our customers and stakeholders.

One of our core values is “being in connection”, and we have made some progress in being in connection with our customers as they are the centre of what we do.

We are committed to providing our customers with the highest level of service and support. By engaging with our customers regularly and listening to their feedback, we will continually improve and tailor our offerings to meet their evolving needs. Our recently completed customer satisfaction survey has given us the opportunity to look into the mirror, identify performance gaps, and measure how our business model is fulfilling stakeholder and customer needs. Moving forward into the 2023/24 financial year, we will surely reflect on the feedback provided to enhance operations, customer experience, stakeholder engagement and align strategic initiatives.

We also recognise that in order to be competitive at global level, the quality of our products and services must be world-class. That is why we have made significant investments in improving our network infrastructure, digitalising operations and continue upskilling our workforce. This will allow us to consistently deliver superior results and stay ahead of the curve in our industry as the premier wholesale provider of connectivity.

Lastly, we are dedicated to educating the market and public about what we do and about internet connectivity, usage, safety and other Information and Communication Technology (ICT) topics. We believe that knowledge-sharing is essential for fostering growth, innovation, and broadband uptake, which is why we have made it a priority to engage with our stakeholders through various channels. By hosting industry events to contributing to thought leadership pieces, radio, and social media campaigns, we are committed to raising awareness and driving positive change.

In conclusion, I am extremely proud of our team’s work and dedication to offering quality service and education to our customers and stakeholders. As we move forward, we will continue to build upon what we have achieved together and pursue excellence in all that we do. We thank you for your trust in our company and remain dedicated to delivering exceptional value and service.

Mr. Keabetswe Segole

BOFINET’S FOOTPRINTS IN THE LAST NINE (9) 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 tenth 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 is 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 ultrahigh-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 close to 70 million 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 the SmartBots project in the near future”.

We are at 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, e.t.c. 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.

Mr. Mpho Koolese

Technical Executive

“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 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.

TAKATOKWANE- MORWAMOSU OVERHEAD FIBRE PROJECT UNDERWAY

These developments by law require an assessement of the risk and impact of the project on the environment and the affected communities.

The study assesses among others, the socioeconomic and bio-physical impacts of the project on the communities along the route during construction. It also investigates all the impacts (both negative and positive) for each of the project phases namely pre-construction, construction, and operation phases. Approval of the study report by the Department of Environment Affairs (DEA) triggers the deployment of the optical fibre cable.

Mr. Noga Noga

Project Manager

BoFiNet will be extending its network coverage from Takatokwane to Morwamosu villages to bring connectivity closer to those communities. These areas are in the Kweneng district, located in the Kalahari Desert, 100km northwest of Molepolole.

The project commenced in December 2022 with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study and it consists of multiple sub-projects namely; palisade fence, equipment shelters, the metro network, solar batteries, rectifiers, backup generators and optical fibre to government facilities such as schools, clinics, and dikgotla in Takatokwane, Dutlwe, Tshwaane, Khekhenye, Motokwe and Morwamosu.

The project is expected to improve the livelihoods of the people in the area through improved network infrastructure and connectivity. The project is going to:

Enable the private sector such as Public Telephony Operators (PTOs), Value Added Networks and Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Facilitate e-government, e-health, and e-learning.

Improve access to knowledge.

Better quality of service.

Upgrade infrastructure.

The contracting stage has been concluded and the optical fibre works will start once the EIA study is approved. The other sub-projects will be done alongside the main fibre project and are expected to be completed by mid-August 2023.

LOCAL ACCESS CONNECTIVITY TO BE EXPANDED

BoFiNet is in the process of rolling out projects in the local access and national backbone categories as a continuation of the efforts that the company has been undertaking ever since its establishment in 2013. The projects are fully sponsored by the Government of Botswana through the Ministry of Communications, Knowledge, and Technology. The local access project will be completed in Tlokweng, Kanye, Molepolole and Mahalapye by the end of August 2023.

The primary aim of these projects is to provide highspeed internet connectivity to business premises, schools, hospitals and clinics.The target number of premises to be covered varies as per the needs of the villages to be covered.

The works to be performed and provided by contractors under these projects entail the deployement of optical fibre cable to business centres, Government offices, and other strategic sites including towers within the target areas.

The planning for the projects started in August 2022, starting with the detailed surveys and network designs, followed by identifying the potential contractors for the implementation of the project and subsequent contracting. Contracting

has been completed for Tlokweng, Molepolole and Mahalapye. Kanye will be completed in the near future. All the projects have been awarded to 100% citizen owned contractors.

The projects are envisioned to provide employment and improve local economies where they are implemented. The other spin-off effects include a boost to economic activities such as rental and transportation during implementation.

Mr. Ephraim Kedisang Programme Manager

BOFINET IN PICTURES

UPICtv Manager, Mr Ramphal Kgabanyane speaking at the Dreams Alive Club Masterclass on the topic ”Producing”

Content creation session with UB film students by UPICtv

The Minister of Communications, Knowledge and Technology - Hon. Minister Thulagano Segokgo during the Digital Delta Data Centre tour

BoFiNet has embarked on a digital transformation journey. This is a journey that is core to BoFiNet’s five (5) year strategy, UNLEASH 2025 which aims at transferring knowledge to staff and ultimately preparing the company as a business that will be able to navigate future technological developments. It is an opportunity that places BoFiNet as the hallmark of digital advancement in Botswana, where various aspects of the national digital transformation strategy will be supported.

Honourable Peggy Serame, when presenting the 2023-24 budget proposal recently uttered that, “the country’s ambition to transition its economy is pinned on transformation”. BoFiNet as a leader in the telecommunications industry, has realised that technology is a central component of people’s lives and businesses.

The custodian of digital transformation at BoFiNet, the Digital Transformation Project Manager, Mr. Mokganedi Kgwaadira has been tasked with the challenging job of transforming BoFiNet digitally and ensuring that all operations work seamlessly with each other. The first step was to analyse core business processes to assess their maturity, and how well they can support digital transformation. After this, BoFiNet performed a digital maturity assessment, which was aimed at gauging how far the current

digital status was from the world standards as well as prioritising activities to close the gap. The two (2) projects provided a clear picture of the company’s current digital status, and this gave birth to a two-year programme that was intended to jumpstart the transformation of BoFiNet into a digital service provider.

The initial step under these projects was to identify gaps and opportunities for tactical automation and strategic digital transformation across BoFiNet’s customer, strategy, technology, operations, culture data environments. This project assesses both “As Is” challenges, “To Be” goals and designs a plan to prioritise and implement the transformation effectively and efficiently.

The end goal is to provide BoFiNet with a self-reliant governance, skill sets, and digital transformation architecture that will enable the company to be agile and effective in evolving with business, technology, and market changes over time, as digital transformation has no “end state” but it is an ever-changing set of challenges and opportunities. BoFiNet employees are also contributing to the process through their proactive innovations aimed at simplifying operations. Many departments have been unveiling applications meant to simplify their processes and improve their service standards. These include Human Resources Recruitment App (https://recruitment.bofinet.co.bw) and 31 apps that are used by internal stakeholders.

Mr. Mokganedi Kgwaadira Digital Transformation Project Manager

Ms. Ivy Matlhogonolo Dikhudu is very passionate about Computer Networking. Her dream came true when she joined the telecommunication industry through BoFiNet on the 1st of April 2016 as an Assistant Technician.Her job was mainly to follow up customer enquiries starting from the survey stage until the customer order is dispatched and delivered.

In 2019, she became a certified Telecomm Carrier Grade Revenue Assurance Professional (GRAPA). She recently graduated with a Master’s in Computing from Botho University. In 2018, Ivy received the BoFiNet Customer Centric Person award for two (2) consecutive quarters. In February 2020 when the Service delivery department was merged with Information Processing and Data Services department, she started learning more about transmission networks. In 2021 November, she was promoted to the position of Assistant Engineer.

Ms. Dikhudu thinks that it is good that she did not know how challenging the engineering field is, otherwise, she would not have started. She believes that everyone is capable regardless of gender, provided one learns and grows beyond self-doubt. “I now know that engineering is not

gender based.” she said. She further touched on the cultural aspect, that women were allocated easy jobs, which are not that demanding and that men preferred challenging jobs. However, lifestyles have now changed, and women are now becoming experts in technology. “Gradually women are now bringing a distinct view to cybersecurity roles that complement men’s view. We are gradually closing the gap and becoming role models.” she highlighted.

Ivy believes that there is need to encourage and equip young girls with technical skills before they proceed to tertiary institutions, in order to bring more Batswana women into Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Robust awareness workshops and support are needed for women holding technical roles. She highlighted a few professional fields that are in the business of technology:

Network engineering, which involves, designing, implementing, monitoring and managing local and wide area networks of an organisation to ensure maximum uptime for users

Cybersecurity engineering, where there is planning, implementation, management, monitoring and upgrade of security measures for the protection of the organisation’s data, systems and networks

Technology planning engineering duties which usually include inspecting, installing equipment and new technologies

When encouraging young Batswana to succeed in the industry, Ms. Dikhudu explained that she believes in ensuring that the cyberspace basics, passion, and willingness to learn are needed. She also added that commitment and curiosity are also key because the nature of the job sometimes requires long working hours, and one should be ready to go an extra mile. In closing, she said, “You are capable, just be ready to learn. Be part of the team to transform the ICT landscape of this country. Be in sync with technology evolution and stay conversant.”

a)

b)

c)

Ms. Ivy Matlhogonolo Dikhudu

Ms. Charity Kgomotso is a Senior Assistant Access Planning Engineer with a degree in Construction Engineering and Management, a Masters of Science (MSc) in Project Management and a number of short courses through Coursera and Alison. She is currently pursuing an Advanced Diploma in Industrial Data Communication, Networking, and Information Technology with the Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT).

She joined BoFiNet in September 2015 under the Facilities department and later moved to Implementation as an Assistant Implementation Engineer where she dealt with outside plant engineering. Her focus was on overseeing outside plant construction and fibre installation projects to end customers. This entails managing schedule and subcontractors to client and internal requirements.

Ms. Kgomotso’s current responsibilities include designing new network infrastructure to complete customer contracts, network rebuilds to include laterals and backbone infrastructure, performing and conducting surveys and field studies, creating civil/cabling packs for contractors and in-house project supervisors and project coordination.

Outside of work, Charity loves to get her hands dirty in construction and baking.

Doing what has always been deemed as men’s duties or tasks, has always been her driving factor. She grew up believing that women are capable of being good and even better engineers than men. When she was asked what two (2) things she knows now that she wishes she knew at the start of her career, Charity boldly stated that learning is life long and urged employees whose jobs pay them to learn, to use those opportunities. “It doesn’t count as a break if you are still thinking about work.” she highlighted.

Ms. Kgomotso believes that ICT should be included in the early school curriculum, such that kids will be taught coding, telecommunications e.t.c at a tender age. We cannot expect to have ‘a Mark Zuckerberg’ from the Setswana curriculum that is taught at our primary schools. Her feeling is that it would be better if we could engage young minds and have them learn what the tech world has to offer and by the time they reach their teens they would be ready to do the jobs we are doing now in our 30s and even older.

Ms. Charity has stated that there are so many professions in the tech industry, software engineers, power distributors, customer support staff, installers, product managers, design developers, power reactor operator, sales and marketing, information and broadcasting, research, and development, just to name a few. She further explained that the technology industry is very huge and ever- changing. New products and challenges arise every day and one needs to come up with solutions. “One minute this is the in thing, tomorrow there is a new toy in the market. You need to be able to keep up, learn and understand what could be of benefit.

In conclusion, Charity urged young girls who wish to join the techies, to come through and make themselves indispensable, as there is plenty of room for them. “Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself and do not limit yourself to this country. There is a lot to learn out there; China is more advanced than Botswana. Go to China and be the one that brings new technology to Botswana.” She said.

Ms. Charity Kgomotso

FIBRE TO THE HOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FTTH)

What is Fibre- To- The Home (FTTH)?

Fibre- to- the- Home (FTTH) is a product that offers residential customers access to high-speed broadband internet connectivity, using optic fibre.

What does FTTH enable a user to do?

As a customer, FTTH enables you to browse the internet, upload and download files or stream content using a high-speed connection.

What are the benefits of FTTH?

Fibre-To-The-Home provides higher bandwidth offering a more stable connection to consumers as compared to copper and wireless, thereby enabling more robust video, internet, and voice services.

- Working and learning from home becomes easier and more productive.

- Church services that are held online become easier.

- You can build your smart home on this network, for example being able to switch off your lights from work, etc.

- It offers customers better data security.

Where Is FTTH available?

It is available in Kgale View, Maruapula, Partial, Tsholofelo East & west, Block 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Village, Extension 3, 5, 9, 11, & 39, Phakalane, Extension 25 & 27, Broadhurst Extension 33 & 40, and Gaborone West Phase 1 & Phase 2.

What do I need to do to get connected to FTTH?

Residents in these areas can talk to their preferred Internet Service Providers to migrate them from copper, ADSL and wireless to fibre as it offers these great benefits. There are 3 parties involved in this FTTH process:

BoFiNet: We build the infrastructure and then announce which areas are ready.

Resident: Upon hearing that their location has FTTH, the residents will then contact their preferred service provider for internet connectivity via fibre.

Service Provider: Connects the residents to the fibre.

To view a full list of our service providers, visit our website; https://www.bofinet. co.bw/isp_list.php