Prepared by: Paul Hamilton
WMRC
paul.hamilton@wmrc.com

Compiled with the kind assistance of Justin Chisenga, Dept of Information and Communication Studies, University of Namibia.

Status

Although it has one of the highest teledensities in Africa (6.4/100, 1999. Source: ITU data), the penetration of the Internet in Namibia does not yet reflect this. Use of the Internet grew in popularity between 1996 and 1998, but further development has apparently been checked pending the availability of greater international capacity. The number of individual subscribers has not been made available by ISPs. However, a meeting of the National Information and Communications Infrastructure (NICI) in September 1999 put the figure at one in 800 Namibians were linked to the Internet. Based on a population of 1,694,500 in 1999, this suggests around 2100 subscribers. The number of individual subscribers can now be estimated to be around 3000, with a large number of these located in Windhoek. A guestimate of the real figure of users would be around twice this.

Usage of the Internet tends to be concentrated where access is provided through institutions and organizations. Commercial banks, the government of Namibia, hotels and lodges, as well as academic institutions (University of Namibia and the Polytechnic of Namibia), major library and information services organisations (National Library of Namibia, the National Archives, the University of Namibia Library) have access to the Internet. Some of them provide facilities to their staff to access the Internet. 

Regulation

Under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act, passed in 1992, the right to provide telecommunications services in the country was reserved exclusively to the PTO, Telecom Namibia Ltd.

However, this overall monopoly is now set to be broken. The Post and Telecommunications Bill (1999) was passed to the Parliamentary Legal Committee on 2 March 2000 prior to being presented in Parliament. The legislation will ensure that the telecommunications sector is fully liberalised to competition by 2004. It contains measures to promote diversity in basic service supply and the introduction of additional information technology. Both internet service providers and internet access providers will be open, liberalised, sectors.

Promoting universal access and the use of ICTs has become a cornerstone of government policy. In mid-August 1999, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Ben Amathila, outlined the Ministry's telecoms development strategy. The Minister noted that universal access was a key tenet, and within five years (i.e. by 2004) Namibia aimed to achieve the following: 80%-90% of the population with access [not necessarily their own] to a telephone; each community of 100 people or more will have at least one connection; and every telephone or business centre will be able to provide access to the internet.

Infrastructure

Telecom Namibia initially provided a microwave link/satellite link to South Africa, along which bandwidth was restricted to around 1 Mbps. This has since been upgraded to a more stable, higher capacity fibre optic link which has bandwdith of 3 Mbps.

Faster Internet access using ISDN is available from homes to those who can afford the service, especially in Windhoek, and Telecom Namibia has put in place fibre optic cables linking all the major towns in the country. This has set the stage for expansion of Internet services to other areas of the country. So far provision of Internet services has concentrated in Windhoek and the coastal towns of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.

Internet service providers (ISPs)

There are three major ISPs, which do not require licenses from the regulator:

• UUNet Internet Africa Namibia. http://www.iafrica.com.na/ AfricaOnline have entered the Namibian ISP market, through a long-term network and cession agreement with UUNet struck in March 2000, valued at R50m (US$7.7m). UUNet Namibia will assign its established dial-up subscribers to AfricaOnline, and provide it with full network services for the next five years. AfricaOnline will focus on content provision. UUNet Namibia intend to concentrate on the corporate leased line and networking business. They will provide AfricaOnline with backbone infrastructure and related services.
  
  UUnet is based in Windhoek, and by March 2000 claimed to have some 4,000 dial-up subscribers and 100 corporate customers. The ISP has 13 points of presence (POPs). They have increased their international bandwidth capacity (into South Africa) to 2048 Kbps from 1512 Kbps. This, the company claims, is 'more than double the capacity than our competitors combined'.
  
  The Namibian Internet Development Foundation (NAMIDEF, at http://www.net.na/namidef/) has outsourced its ISP activities to UUNet. In 1999, NAMIDEF ceased to exist when its members decided to form SchoolNet Namibia, which has inherited all the assets of NAMIDEF. SchoolNet Namibia will aim at connecting schools in Namibia to the Internet.
  
• M-Web Namibia. http://www.mweb.com.na (formerly Internet World Wide Namibia. http://www.iwwn.com.na). M-Web Namibia was launched in 1999 with the acquisition of the former Internet World Wide Namibia. M-Web Namibia is a subsidiary of M-Web Africa which is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and is part of the MIH Limited (http://www.mih.net), the company that was formed in 1986 as South Africa's first ever pay-television service provider. M-Web Namibia has 8 points of presence around the country. M-Web Namibia has three 256k links which are used for outgoing data, while incoming data is received through satellite. Provision of Internet services through the Digital Satellite Television (DSTv) facilities is just being introduced.
  
• Club Internet. http://www.namib.com Club Internet has 10 points of presence (POPs) around the country, of which three are located in the north of the country. Club Internet is part of the South African ITI Technology Holding Limited (http://www.iti.co.za/master.htm).

Contacts

Justin Chisenga
Department of Information and Communication Studies
University of Namibia
Private Bag 13301
340 Mandume Ndemufayo Avenue
Pionners Park
Windhoek, NAMIBIA

Tel: +264 61 2063851
Fax: +264 61 2063806
E-mail: jchisenga@unam.na

Namibia Communications Commission (NCC)
Private Bag 13309
Windhoek
Tel: +264 61 222 666
Fax: +264 61 222 790

Sources

Telecom Namibia
Dept of Information and Communication Studies, University of Namibia.
Namibia Communications Commission (NCC)
African Internet Society Initiative (AISI).
ITU STARS Database
African Telecommunication Indicators (1998), ITU.
African Development Forum (ADF) profiles of National Information Communication Infrastructure (NICI).