Liquid Telecom Zim contributes to national economic growth

Liquid-034-copyICT industry contribution
Liquid Telecom has made significant strides in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry in Zimbabwe, contributing immensely to economic growth through giving access to broadband services to all sectors of the economy. The internet access provider has catapulted the growth of Zimbabwe’s ICT sector by significant investments its fibre infrastructure, over $150m.

In Zimbabwe, Liquid Telecom has built the largest fibre network spanning more than 10,000km and increasing at a rate of 4km per week. Liquid Telecom has deployed fibre optic cable for provision of triple play services of internet, voice and data in Zimbabwe and rest of Africa. A number of International carriers like Orange, Vodacom, CMC Networks, Tata and Internet Solution use Liquid Telecom for reliable international services within Zimbabwe and other African countries like South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, etc testimony to the reliability and quality of the network. Liquid Telecom network is built on the prime tenet of redundancy and starts with multiple local rings and routes joined by spurs in Cities and the same topology layout is repeated nationally and regionally. The robust fibre footprint alone opens the door to a wide array of services that are accessible via the internet. These include Direct Internet, Video Conferencing, Virtual Private Network (VPN), VoIP and Wi-Fi, among others.

Quality of Service

The trunk routing uses as the transport layer next-generation Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) which has unlimited capacity since it can carry multiple channels in one fibre strand. The last time we spoke to the Liquid Telecom Managing Director and Group Executive for Southern Africa Wellington Makamure, he indicated that Liquid Telecom has built a robust network which is fully redundant, providing connectivity onto the five main subsea cable systems landing in Africa namely WACS, EASSY, SEACOM, SAT3 and TEAMs.

He said, “Our investment in the network ensures we offer a premium service to our customers and our pricing model is value for money as it takes into account all tenets of a futuristic and scalable network. We provide fully managed services and maintain our network with the full realisation that our sector plays a critical role in supporting the economy. In offering services we have Service Level Agreements (SLAs), a sign of our commitment to providing a quality service. Added to this we provide a Network Operations Centre (NOC) which is manned 24/7 to ensure our customers have full access to us in their times of need.”

The Liquid Telecom network is built upon the latest technology Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) which enables managed services such as single and dual homed Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections. Liquid Telecom says it is designed with flexibility and reliability for the enterprise and home usage.

Partnership for growth

Recently Liquid Telecom struck a partnership with MTN South Africa and Makamure had this to say about the partnership, “The partnership enables Liquid Telecom to offer businesses gigabit-speed services accompanied by negotiated Service Level Agreements and consistently excellent 24/7 customer service. The additional countries which Liquid Telecom will now have a presence in are Benin, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan and Swaziland. The agreement with Liquid Telecom gives MTN the ability to service its multinational enterprise customers in Burundi, DRC, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.”

Corporate social responsibility

Liquid Telecom has also made significant positive interventions in society through investment in various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. In 2015 alone, Liquid Telecom said that they invested more than $500,000 towards projects that assist a network of orphanages, healthcare and education for the disadvantaged communities through partnerships with key government stakeholders. This is a partnership which LTZ has pledged to continue and grow.

Achievements

Liquid Telecom has deployed more than 200 active online Wi-Fi sites nationwide. The Liquid Telecom Wi-Fi Product Manager Perpetua Chimeura indicates that Liquid Telecom Wi-Fi hotspots are accessible as ZOL spots and Econet Wireless Wi-Fi Zones in restaurants, airports, ports of entry, hospitals, townhalls, shopping malls, shopping centres, growth points, hotels, food courts, sporting clubs and select Econet Wireless shops dotted across the country.

Over and above an extensive and growing Wi-Fi footprint, Liquid Telecom recently launched the Next Generation Voice service in Harare. The service is available on Liquid Telecom’s number prefix 08677… a non-geographical number in Zimbabwe which enables one to make internet based calls. Dependent on reliable internet, the difference in call clarity and reliability and value added business services makes Liquid Telecom’s voice an essential platform to improve business communications and increase productivity.

Liquid Telecom announced on Tuesday 8 September 2015 that it has become the first Pan-African fibre operator to receive the MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) services certification, an achievement that cements its position as the leading wholesale carrier in Africa.

MEF is the global industry alliance and defining body for Carrier Ethernet. Its mission is to accelerate the worldwide adoption of Carrier-class Ethernet networks and services. It conducts a comprehensive testing programme for the services and products of both vendors and operators.

Over a period of four months, the MEF-approved test lab, Iometrix, extensively tested and independently verified Liquid Telecom’s E-Line service delivered over its fibre network which currently spans 20,000km crossing borders from the tip of Uganda to Cape Town — and expanding at the rate of around 100km a week.

The company was named Best African Wholesale Carrier in 2012, 2013 and 2014 at the annual Global Carrier Awards. Liquid Telecom also won Infrastructure Innovation of the Year 2014 at the Fibre To The Home Council Africa awards.

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