Telecoms giant MTN has announced an investment of about US$15 million in its optic fibre network across Zambia. According to the network, the investments are geared towards improving internet access across the country.
MTN said it has invested $10 million in optic fibre installation that will run from Nakonde to Tanzania while the remaining $5 million has been set aside to finance the fiber that will run from Chingola to Kalumbila Mine in North-Western Province.
Commenting on the development, the company’s senior manager for network performance and service level agreement, Chisanga Kaziya, said MTN decided to build its own fibre infrastructure to avoid spending colossal sums of money by transmitting data through neighbouring countries.
Currently, MTN Zambia connects through three different points namely, Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania to EassyCable Windhoek in Namibia, to access the West Africa Cable System and through Zimbabwe to South Africa, to access the SEACOM cable to provide the required redundancy for its customers.
Mr Kaziya said MTN Zambia was building the fibre network within the country to ensure that it is connected to Tanzania in the first phase using its fibre to provide the needed capacity to its customers.
