Internet accessibility low in hotels
Boitshepo Majube | Wednesday April 23, 2014 12:25
The study also revealed that conventional connectivity is not available in a number of places, including cities. This has led to facilities connecting through expensive and unreliable communication setups.
“Many internet service providers were found to be challenged in terms of lacking capability to effectively service their clients with Internet,” the study said, further noting that there is slow Internet speed at the hospitality facilities. It also pointed out that frequent power outage is another factor that tends to cripple Internet accessibility.
The study, undertaken in March, also noted that the cost of Internet is still high in Botswana. “Some hospitality facilities indicated that a major hindrance for buying the appropriate bandwidth capacity was high prices of Internet packages offered in the market,” it revealed.
While Botswana has spent nearly P320 million in bringing underwater fibre optic cables along east and west Africa, logistical glitches between the bandwidth operator and internet service providers has reportedly bottlenecked the promise of faster, more reliable and cheaper internet.
It was also discovered that in places such as Kasane, Kang, Maun, and Ghanzi, there was no dedicated personnel from service providers to attend to Internet challenges such that attendance to faults took long.
“Many service providers have offices in either Gaborone or Francistown and are not present in other localities,” stated the report.
In the study BOCRA concluded that provision of Internet to customers has become an inseparable part of service provision by hospitality facilities worldwide.
It says customers do not only need accommodation from these centres but also need assurance that they will be able to actively participate in the online arena using bandwidth hungry application through the use of high-speed Internet access.
BOCRA says Botswana is looking into the implementation of the National Broadband Strategy and the hospitality industry has been identified as one of the crucial sectors, which must be connected to high speed Internet.
“Facilities within the hospitality sector should be used to promote Internet usage and increase broadband penetration in the country,” it stated. BOCRA further noted that the results of the study show that most of the hospitality facilities in Botswana are embracing provision of Internet as one of the marketing tools to attract customers.
“The study has uncovered the need to avail information about various bandwidth packages, appropriate Internet technologies by Internet service providers to enable them to serve their clientele satisfactorily.”
The study also pointed out that dependency on BTCL (the largest Internet provider) by their Value Added Services providers (VANS) for Internet services was also a major concern highlighted by hospitality facilities that are subscribing for the ADSL service from BTCL. BOCRA concluded that Internet service providers have evolved over time and that they are transforming to offer advanced and high speed technologies hence is critical for information to be availed to customers to make choices for their business needs.
Last December, the British High Commissioner to Botswana told Mmegi Business that while they were challenged with the rampant power and water shortages in Gaborone, the lack of cheap, high speed and reliable Internet in Botswana posed the greatest threat to the smooth relocation of the De Beers sales office to Gaborone.