Paratus Botswana, part of the pan-African network operator Paratus Group, has launched a Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) service and the company believes there is opportunity within what is considered a relatively new market segment.

Paratus FTTH is up against local competitors, including BTC, Mascom and Orange – and BoFiNet, all gunning for ROI in network connectivity solution rollout, both for business and for users in the home/ residential networking environment.

Paratus Botswana MD, Shawn Bruwer says fibre connectivity has, up until recently, been expensive, but innovation, R&D and focused service have helped to bring costs down.

“We’ve entered the market with a 24-month product … we’ve managed to bring a very competitive product into the market, with a very good home router, and then low contention on the FTTH, because FTTH is a contended service,” says Bruwer.

He adds that Paratus has invested a lot in backbone fibre and in connecting various areas to fibre, as well as in delivery of paired services to corporates.

It asserts that it delivers a high quality service to both corporates and home/ residential network users.

“Paratus boasts a pan-African network that historically catered for Enterprise customers. There are plans in place to deploy FTTH to consumers in other parts of the country at a later stage. For now, we’re delighted that we can provide Gaborone residents with an unequalled fibre service - a reliable, fast, secure, and uncapped internet connection, which of course makes FTTH an absolute ‘no-brainer’.”

Bruwer continues, “The benefit of FTTH is that we are able to deliver internet service directly to your home from our network, where we have invested extensively to ensure Botswana has constant access to the world and the internet. Utilising our higher broadband FTTH packages will eliminate speed issues and allow everyone in the household to connect without the fear of interrupting another family member’s experience. If you’re using the cloud for storage, FTTH makes the whole process easier, faster, smoother, and safer. That’s why we have focused on creating an uncapped internet service that is bullet-proof for residents in Gaborone because we believe they deserve to enjoy uptime all the time.”

Bruwer points out that Paratus’ acquisition of Broadband Botswana Internet (BBI) in March this year has helped to cement the company’s dominance in the home/ residential networking space and the local demand is increasing.