ICT Telecom Namibia BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE FUTURE Telecom Namibia, the government-owned and largest ICT (information and communications technology) provider in the country, has proven itself a proactive player. Since its inception in 1992 it has established a state-of-theart telecommunication network infrastructure.
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The importance of a world-class telecommunications structure for national development needs no explaining. International mining companies, for example, operate in a global environment and need to be in 24-hour communication with operations around the world. Even more pressing are the needs of Namibia’s growing tourism industry. Tourism now accounts for nearly 20 per cent of all employment and contributes N$7.2 billion to GDP. Some one million visitors are attracted to the country’s scenery and game parks. To support this, hotels and travel agencies need to be able to connect to booking sites in the UK, Germany and South Africa and of course, visitors these days expect broadband access and mobile connectivity wherever they are.
IP/MPLS POINTS-OF-PRESENCE The existing IP/MPLS points-ofpresence (PoPs), which are the base of Telecom Namibia’s IP network and service provisioning, are being upgraded from 1Gbps to a 10Gbps platform to satisfy the growing demand for bandwidth on the national network and also to match the upgraded 10Gbps DWDM transport network. New PoPs were established in Swakopmund, Otjiwarongo, Grootfontein, Gobabis and Aus to optimise the network design.
WEST AFRICA CABLE SYSTEM (WACS) The commissioning of the Swakopmund Cable System in June 2012 was undoubtedly the biggest and most important milestone achieved by Telecom Namibia as the landing party for Namibia. The cable system forms part of WACS which landed on Namibian shores on 8 February 2011.
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In addition, the DWDM transport network is being upgraded from 10Gbps to 40Gbps capacities.
Figure 1: INTERNATIONAL POINTS OF PRESENCE OTN/DWDM TRANSPORT PLATFORM As part of the network upgrade, Telecom Namibia has deployed an Optical Transport Network and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) transport platform across the national backbone network to provide for highcapacity long-distance routes. • • •
From Swakopmund to Windhoek From Swakopmund via Khorixas via Otjiwarongo to Grootfontein From Katima Mulilo via Grootfontein via Buitepos via Gobabis via Windhoek to Keetmanshoop
INTERNATIONAL PLATFORMS To address the increase in demand for international bandwidth, the total number of submarine traffic carrying circuits were increased from 22 x STM-1 (about 3.7 Gbps) to 32 x STM-1’s (about 4.96 Gbps), representing a yearon-year growth of about 45%. To strengthen redundancy of our global connectivity and maximise the use of spare submarine cable network capacities, SAT-3 links were migrated and integrated into the International PoPs platform. Further upstream connections to selected Tier 1 Internet Service Providers were added in South
WACS is an important development in the area of modern communications that supports economic and social development in Namibia and the SADC region.
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Africa (Johannesburg and Cape Town) and Europe (London and Frankfurt), strengthening TN’s position as a Tier 2 Internet Service Provider. All this infrastructure is integrated and monitored from Telecom Namibia’s 24/7 central Network Operations Centre (NOC) in Windhoek. BROADBAND NETWORK UPGRADE AND EXPANSION The demand and appetite for high speed services in the last mile continues to increase year-onyear. In response, Telecom Namibia continued with its strategy to grow broadband access networks across the country. The total number of fixed broadband ports in the network was increased from 125,124 to 131,207, which is a year-on-year growth of about 5%. However, actual uptake increased from 33,056 to 43,571, an increase of 31% during the same period. To achieve this growth, a number of new fixed broadband stations were rolled out countrywide. Stations with port utilisation in excess of 80% were upgraded with additional port capacities, whereas stations with a backhaul link utilisation of 75% plus were also upgraded with additional backhaul capacities. Building on the strength of an extensive Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical transport system, capable of transporting multiples of 10 Gb/s, the next logical step was to make Ethernet access available across the country. With approximately 12,000 km of fibre optic cable across the country, 78 provider edge access routers were deployed, covering 57 points of presence (towns) and providing TN with an IP throughput capacity of 55.9 Tb/s. This was done during 2013/2014 with Juniper technology.
The infrastructure brought affordable information technology services to Namibians and opened up opportunities for further growth of ICTs in the country.
Apart from WACS, Namibia today has connectivity to any global destination for access of any global content. Telecom Namibia is also connected to two other major submarine fibre cable routes, i.e. SAT3 and SEACOM, thereby enhancing the reliability of Namibia’s connectivity to the global system.
Gobabis via Stampriet via Maltahöhe via Aus to Keetmanshoop From Grootfontein via Rundu to Katima Mulilo
Figure 2: IP (Ethernet) ACCESS NETWORK
For fixed broadband and high speed broadband services Telecom Namibia started to roll out Multi Service Access Nodes (MSAN’s). This supports our fibre to the home capability and phases out the remaining legacy fixed line voice only network. This NGN building block will allow us to continue using our copper infrastructure and deploying fibre to the home in new developments. To date the company has deployed 72 MSAN nodes. The