Liquid Telecom has launched a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service in Zambia, albeit it on a limited scale at present, following a successful pilot last year.
The pan-African network operator earlier this week announced that its local unit, CEC Liquid Telecom, which is a joint venture with Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corporation, has made services available to 8,000 homes and businesses in Lusaka.
The telco pledged to invest US$15 million in the rollout this year to increase coverage to 20,000 premises in the capital by the end of December.
The FTTH service will be marketed as Fibroniks . It will be sold to end-users through ISPs.
"This is a major milestone in the development of Zambia’s telecoms infrastructure," said CEC Liquid Telecom’s managing director Andrew Kapula, in a statement.
"We believe in the power of connectivity to change lives and will continue to invest in building a high-quality network which will enable our people and businesses to prosper," he said.
Indeed, the FTTH announcement comes just over a month after Liquid Telecom announced plans to spend $5 million on the deployment of a new 500 km fibre link between Lusaka and Victoria Falls.
At the time Kapula pointed out that the southern part of Zambia that will be home to the new link is lagging behind other areas in terms of access to decent quality ICT services.
The fibre link is scheduled to be completed in June. Liquid Telecom then plans to push on with the build to reach the border towns of Kazungula and Sesheke to connect with Namibia and Botswana.
