Paratus Africa, which claims to be the fastest growing and largest privately owned pan-African telecoms operator, says it has successfully obtained operational licenses in 22 African countries.

This is ahead of the company's recently announced plans to invest a total of over R150m on infrastructure in Namibia over the next three years, of which R100m will be invested in fibre infrastructure, as part of its fibre expansion programme.

Paratus CEO Barney Harmse says Africa is one of the fastest emerging markets with enormous business opportunities. "As a fully licensed telecoms operator in all the countries where we operate, we are perfectly positioned to take advantage of this opportunity."

According to the company, the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) has prescribed that all of the country's businesses should receive their billing from licensed operators.

Paratus says it is working closely with its clients and operators to ensure that all billing is done locally and that all operations are in terms of regulations and that all regulatory requirements are being met.

In April, the company said it had already laid 100km of fibre in terms of general fibre technology installation, using its end-to-end solution, which the company pointed out is independent of any third-party infrastructure.

In March, Paratus Telecom Zambia (one of Zambia's largest ISPs), welcomed a decision by the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) to force power utility company Zesco to disconnect its unlicensed international data transit operators. They reportedly used the utility's infrastructure to offer digital communication services to local unregistered ISPs.

Country manager Marius Van Vuuren said, "Unregulated International internet service providers are operating below the radar, not paying taxes and putting local providers at the disadvantage."

"We welcome ZICTA's bold move to stop this practice and urge organisations that they only entrust internet connections that are so vital to their businesses to licensed and regulated providers," he added.