Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) is a

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

and

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

, and is headquartered in

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaboron ...

. It provides telecommunications services throughout the country. The company was formerly a government entity but is now a public entity listed on the

Botswana Stock Exchange The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) is a stock exchange located in Gaborone, Botswana. The Botswana share market was established in 1989 and became the Botswana Stock Exchange in 1994. It is governed by thBotswana Stock Exchange Act The BSE has 36 ...

as Botswana Telecommunications Limited (BTCL).

History

BTC was established in 1980 to provide, develop, operate and manage Botswana's national and international telecommunications services. BTC is a

parastatal A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...

in which the Botswana government holds 100% equity. BTC was the only telecommunications provider in Botswana until 1996 when an amendment of the BTC Act removed the monopoly of BTC and allowed indirect competition from two cellular companies, Mascom and

Orange Botswana Orange S.A. (), formerly France Télécom S.A. (stylized as france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications corporation. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France, and 59,000 elsewhere. In 2015, ...

BTC's network is composed of an all-digital

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ra ...

and fibre optic system with digital exchanges at the main centres. The current network comprises 7,300 kilometres of microwave radio and fibre optic links between 12 main processors, each serving a specific area of the country. The switching units have a capacity of about 117 000 lines. Current services provided include national and international telephony, managed and data networks, very small aperture terminal (

VSAT A very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3.8 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Bit rates, in most cases, range from 4 kbit/s up to 1 ...

), private wires, leased circuits, toll free services, Internet, paging, public telephones, voice messaging, telex,

packet switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into '' packets'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the p ...

, telegraph and customer premises. BTC works closely with the two major mobile operators in Botswana namely Mascom and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

Botswana. In 2008 BTC established a mobile arm, beMOBILE. On 1 November 2012 BTC was converted to and registered as a public company, Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL). BTCL also provides virtual telephony services, paging and data communication for corporate networks.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of BTCL are: * Lorato Boakgomo -Ntakhwana - Chairman of the Board * Anthony Masunga -Managing Director * Gerald Nthebolan - Member * Serty Leburu - Member * Alan Boshwaen - Member * Choice Pitso - Member * Professor Rejoice Tsheko - Member * Maclean Letshwiti BTCL Senior Corporate Officers: * Anthony Masunga - Managing Director * Mmamotse Monageng General Shared Services and Human Resources * Abel Bogatsu - General Manager Finance * Kaelo Radira - Company Secretary * Bambino Masoko - General Manager Sales * Pilot Yane - General Manager Marketing(A) * Goitseone Tshiamiso - General Manager Customer Care(A) * Christopher M. Diswai - General Manager Strategy * Thabo Nkala - General Manager Technology * Mokgethi Nyatseng - General Manager Wholesale * Same Kgosiemang - General Manager Internal Audit

Products and services

For many years, BTC has been

's largest supplier of fixed-line and associated communications services, and it has been providing

telephony Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is i ...

and other products to urban and rural centres across the country. The following main products and services are currently offered by BTC: Residential *

Payphones A payphone (alternative spelling: pay phone) is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or in high-traffic outdoor areas, with prepayment by inserting money (usually coins) or by billing a credit or debit ...

Prepaid cards A stored-value card (SVC) is a payment card with a monetary value stored on the card itself, not in an external account maintained by a financial institution. This means no network access is required by the payment collection terminals as funds ...

, BTC prepaid, BTC

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

of up to speeds of 50

Mbps In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mult ...

and Postpaid and Prepaid LTE of speeds up to 150 Mbps. Business *Internet (Botsgate),

Frame Relay Frame Relay is a standardized wide area network (WAN) technology that specifies the physical and data link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology. Originally designed for transport across Integrated Se ...

, Internet Products, Data Services and Leased Lines,

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. Work ...

Customer Premises Equipment * Telephone Instruments,

PABX A business telephone system is a multiline telephone system typically used in business environments, encompassing systems ranging in technology from the key telephone system (KTS) to the private branch exchange (PBX). A business telephone syst ...

Value Added Services (or VANS) * Abbreviated Dialling,

Alarm Call In animal communication, an alarm signal is an antipredator adaptation in the form of signals emitted by social animals in response to danger. Many primates and birds have elaborate alarm calls for warning conspecifics of approaching predator ...

Caller ID Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call i ...

, Call Barring, Call Diversion,

Call Waiting Call waiting is a telephone service where a subscriber can accept a second incoming telephone call by placing an in-progress call on hold—and may also switch between calls. With some providers it can be combined with additional features such a ...

Conference Call A conference call is a telephone call in which someone talks to several people at the same time. The conference call may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the call or set up so that the called party merely listens into ...

, Time announcement, Toll Free,

Voice Mail A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to ind ...

, Itemised Billing Tariffs * Installation and Rental, Prepaid, Operator Assisted, Toll Free, International pre-paid and postpaid,

Postpaid The postpaid mobile phone is a mobile phone for which service is provided by a prior arrangement with a mobile network operator. The user in this situation is billed after the fact according to their use of mobile services at the end of each mon ...

, Public Phones and Scratch'n Dial, Service Call, International Payphones, ISDB BRI

Media Release

Botswana telecommunications corporation has embarked in a network transformation projects in its quest to Improve service quality and provision of superior customer experience.

BTC Broadband

BTC offers high speed, capped and uncapped Broadband Internet connection of up to 50

. This is made possible through various technologies within the BTC network.

Financial

In June 2016 BTCL published its first annual financial statements as a public company for the financial year end 31 March 2016. The company reported a loss of P371 million which was due to an impairment write down of P522 million, and had revenue of P1.512 billion which was a marginal increase from previous year. Total assets were at P1.949 billion while cash and cash equivalents was at P390 million. The company also declared a dividend of 5 thebe per share Subsequent to these results the share price started its decline from its high of P1.30 to P0.85 per share on 15 September 2016.

Timelines

Commitments

On 2 February 2010 Powertel Communications signed a Cross-Border Interconnection Agreement with Botswana Telecommunications Corporation. BTC agreed to provide Powertel with international bandwidth capacity for two years after the two organisations completed cross border fibre optic connections at Ramokgwebana in December 2009. . Retrieved 07-13-2010 BTC is currently providing 45Mbit/s to

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

. BTC has committed to contribute P504 million to secure reliable bandwidth connection from an undersea fibre optic through the West African Cable System (WACS). BTC and Telecom Namibia both contribute equally as second tiers while regional giants like

Vodacom Vodacom Group Limited is a South-Western African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 55 million customers. From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to include ...

, MTN,

Neotel Neotel, previously SNO Telecommunications, is the second national operator (SNO) for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on 31 August 2006 in Kyalami in northern Johannesburg. Neotel is South Africa's first dir ...

and Zain will contribute US$100 million (approximately P672 million) each for the development of the undersea cable that will link London with Africa. BTC is also committed US$210 million into the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System ( EASSy) to further increase Botswana's bandwidth capacity.

BTC to be privatized

In June 2010, the government of Botswana government planned to privatize BTC. The Sunday Standard reported that Presidential Affairs Minister, Lesego Motsumi told parliament that the cabinet has taken a decision regarding the privatization structure of BTC and the information will be communicated with all stakeholders soon. Lesego Motsumi stated that the aim of the privatization was to minimize risks, and get maximum benefits. She added that the government had to carry out extensive consultations before going ahead with the plans.

BTCL Listing

BTCL listed on the

on 8 April 2016 at P1 per share and total valuation of P1.05 billion (1.05 billion shares). The listing was muchly awaited and was oversubscribed but individual citizen were given preference over company. The shares were allocated 51% to the government of Botswana, 5% to employees of BTCL and 44% to Batswana and Botswana companies. The shares were largely restricted for the benefit of Batswana and are traded among Batswana and companies benefiting for Batswana e.g. funds managers. The share price spiked on listing and continued its to rise to high of P1.30 per share then subsequently declined upon announcements of financial year results of a P371 million loss. The share is currently trading at P0.85 per share 15 September 2016. It was announced that Paul Taylor, who had led BTCL to its transformation and subsequent listing would not have his contract renewed at end of his contract which ended in July 2016. Anthony Masunga was then appointed acting Managing Director. On 1 November 2012, Botswana Telecommunications Corporation ( BTC ) was converted from a statutory body into a public company limited by shares, in accordance with th
Transition Act and Companies Act
and renamed Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited.

References

External links

*http://www.btc.bw/themes/btc/assets/documents/Final%20BTC%202019%20Annual%20Report.pdf *https://www.weekendpost.co.bw/20695/business/btc-invests-60-million-pula-to-enhance-internet-speed-quality/ {{Authority control 1980 establishments in Botswana Botswana companies Companies listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange Internet service providers of Botswana Telecommunications companies established in 1980 Telecommunications companies of Botswana