Recentl,y Paratus Namibia announce the signing of its first fibre Open Access agreement, onboarding Africa Online as a client.
But this is only the start. Paratus, a full-service network spanning the African continent and connecting customers internationally, says that this is the first of many deals in which Paratus will share its infrastructure with licensed operators in delivering fibre connections to the broader business and domestic market in Namibia.
It suggests that by removing the main barrier to enter the market, what it calls its Open Access service allows multiple operators to share the same fibre infrastructure and deliver services to their respective customers without the need to duplicate the costly development of that infrastructure.
Paratus Namibia claims it is effectively disrupting the network services industry with this move by enabling fair competition and affordability to customers and users. It is also, it says, giving the economy a boost as Open Access opens economic opportunities for licensed operators to benefit from connecting to a growing fibre network.
In fact the bulk of Paratus Namibia’s investment has been in fibre infrastructure (currently running at around N$150-million – or $9.7 million – annually) as the operator sees this as the best solution for today and the foreseeable future.
Paratus adds that Africa Online is expected to be the first of many in the pipeline to sign up to Paratus Namibia’s Open Access service.