Government owned wholesale provider of national and international telecommunication infrastructure, Botswana Fibre Networks (BoFiNet) has urged the country's private sector to support the parastatals' intended rollout of Fibre-to-the-X (FTTx) and wholesale Wi-Fi.

BoFiNet has planned wholesale Wi-Fi network deployment in the country's capital Gaborone in May and wants to roll the infrastructure out to other towns and villages by November, while FTTx rollout is scheduled for April to August.

Kungo Mabogo, BoFiNet's communications, PR and marketing specialist pressed the business community to embrace and support the FTTx and Wi -Fi initiatives.

Mabogo said business should make space within their ICT facilities for these initiatives in order to benefit from the services.

The identified targeted areas for the FTTx - Wi Fi service include: hospitals, government offices, airports, and commercial areas such as; filling stations, shopping centers, bus ranks and office parks

Projects aligned to the government's National Broadband Strategy (NBS) are expected to prop up the use of BoFiNet National Optic Fiber Backbone, address the urban/ rural broadband divide as well as the current high levels of wholesale and retail prices.

"Over the coming years, Botswana must become a nation that maximizes the power, reach, versatility and innovation of ICT. This will enable the country to secure a key position in the emerging global information society, and flourish economically throughout.

The deployment will help drive or speed up the national connectivity, helping draw communities closer together and facilitate economic growth and development in all regions of the country," Mabogo said.

BoFiNeT manages Botswana's international connectivity assets - EASSy and WACS, national fibre backbone, fibre in the local loop, transport network.

The parastatal also provides a broad spectrum of telecommunication and ICT wholesale services.

Botswana's government is sponsoring FTTx rollout, while wholesale Wi-Fi is sponsored by Universal Access Service Fund to improve ICT usage in the country.