ZAMTEL completes USD4million livingstone investment

Zamtel has completed its USD 4 million Livingstone investment and is on schedule to hand over free internet hotspots to all official UNWTO venues and hotels ahead of the conference.

Livingstone has effectively become the first city in the country to benefit from Zamtel’s latest high speed internet services using the optic fibre network technology.

As an official UNWTO communications partner, Zamtel is providing free internet access to delegates through virtual hotspots set up at all approved hotels and other strategic institutions such as the airport and conference secretariat.

The free internet access offer is limited to the duration of the UNWTO general assembly and beneficiary institutions includes David Livingstone, Sun International, Courtyard, Falls way Lodge, Chrismar and Protea Hotels.

Others are Harry Mwanga Nkumbula Airport and the One Stop Shop (UNWTO Secretariat).

In February, Zamtel prioritized the upgrade of telecommunication infrastructure in Livingstone in order to provide reliable and high quality services during and after the UNWTO general assembly taking place this August.

The company focused on two major capital projects namely: Expansion of the 3G Mobile Network Coverage using Long Term Evolution (LTE) or 4G ready Mobile Baste Stations and installation of the Fiber to the home, office, cabinet and business.

Under the 2G/3G/LTE Mobile Network coverage and expansion project, Zamtel has deployed 22 new coverage and expansion sites in and around Livingstone, increasing capacity in the tourist capital by more than twofold.

As a consequence of these two projects in Livingstone, Zamtel has managed to connect 2G, 3G and LTE ready cell sites through fiber which has greatly increased internet access speeds for broadband services such as video streaming, mobile television and other value added services.

Additionally all passive copper cabinets have been replaced by active cabinets (MSAGs) which are fed by fiber under the FTTx project.

This has reduced the copper distance to clients by over 60 percent in most cases resulting in great improvement in ADSL internet throughput and quality. 

At national level, Zamtel is currently running a fiber backbone network from Sesheke through Lusaka and Copperbelt to Solwezi.

Additionally, there are three branches running from Kapiri to Serenje, Lusaka to Mwembeshi and Lusaka to Rufunsa.

Besides the Fiber Backbone, Microwave (Radio) Backbones run to all provincial centres in the country.

To meet the increasing high capacity (bandwidth) demands for ICT services in Zambia, Zamtel plans to extend the current fiber backbone network to all provincial centers and districts across the country.

This project will largely benefit clients who require wide area network (WAN) interconnectivity across the country.

Projects such as E-Government aimed at interconnecting ministries and government agencies are expected to benefit from the countrywide National Fiber Backbone.

Zamtel shall have the largest fiber backbone network in the country once the National Backbone is deployed to all districts. 

With this level of investment, Zamtel is hoping to turn Zambia into a virtual hotspot providing fast internet connectivity that is likely to spur rapid economic development through reliability internet connectivity.