Botswana Power Company (BPC) the national power utility concern for the Southern African country has partnered with Pan-African telecoms carrier Liquid Telecom to create a new telecoms network provider in Botswana.
This comes after BPC’s directors approved the commercialisation of its network in March 2016, and opened up a bidding process which was won by Liquid Telecom.
Under the agreement, BPC which has an optical fibre cable network that’s embedded on some of its high voltage transmission lines will lease the excess optical fibres from its network to Liquid Telecom.
This will allow BPC to make optimal use of these assets while providing Liquid Telecom with resources to serve the network needs of its wholesale and retail clients in the region.
The joint venture will operate under the name Liquid Telecom Botswana and Liquid Telecom will be the majority shareholder in this joint venture.
It’s the first time that BPC’s fibre network will be commercialised to provide networks services across the country and for Liquid Telecom it’s the latest in its efforts to expand its footprint across Africa.
Earlier this year it acquired South African telecoms company Neotel, cementing its position in the country and extended its broadband network across 12 countries.
The BPC partnership also increases the Botswana presence of Econet Wireless Group, Liquid Telecom’s parent company. Mascom, an Econet Wireless subsidiary, operates in Botswana as one of the country’s mobile network providers.
