BTCL dreams big

Botswana Telecommunications Limited (BTCL), the national telco company has embarked on a five-year blueprint to avoid being caught napping by the uncontrollable wave of 4th industrial revolution sweeping across the globe. BTCL Chief Operations Officer (COO), Aldrin Sivako told Botswana Guardian this week that the strategy is being implemented to build a company for the future.

“The idea is that we want to pursue a sustainable development for the organisation, touching all the enablers which are technology, commercial and our people,” Sivako said.Satellite investment of over 60 million pula on Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), a development the company announced this month, is one of the cornerstones expected to drive the five -year strategy.

“We used to have VSAT but it had issues and challenges which we have now addressed,” said Sivako, highlighting that BTCL has come up with High Throughput Satellite (HTS) that provides concentrated beams on specific locations and in the process offering high-speed broadband connectivity across the country. “We are contributing to the National Broadband Strategy,” said Sivako, explaining that BTCL exist to provide telecommunication service, even to customers in remote areas. “Our customers anywhere should not be disadvantaged,”

Sivako reckons it’s key for BTCL to position herself through building capabilities for the future.He said BTCL is scanning the environment to harness capabilities, so as to deliver digital experience and easy access to big data, the 4th industrial revolution’s target. “There is so much data unused and as any operator, we are basically building that base, create an enabling platform for customers who may come to partner with us to leverage on this big data.”Sivako said BTCL is getting herself ready for the new developments such as the internet of things (IoT), which are now a huge part of the current wave of industrial revolution.

“There is quite a lot that is happening even outside the telecomm space. We have become the centre, the key enabler for this and hence as an organisation, we have to position ourselves well now, not in the future,” said the COO.
 “Everything that we are doing, we are no longer deploying narrow band systems – 2G or 3G, we have moved,” Sivako, adding that BTCL is doing 4G in preparation for the future.

Sivako said BTCL will continue to expand its network coverage and also automate its processes to improve efficiency with digital fronts, as the company endevours to be a leading telco company. “Our benchmarks are the world’s number one such as Korea Telecommunications,” said Sivako.