Gives 30% of Botswanans health, education, security
The Orange Group has launched its first ever 5G service in Africa with a dramatic social impact in Botswana. With the switching of a service for the Gaborone and Francistown, it has unveiled a number of social service applications designed to use 5G. The best impression could be created by a Connected Ambulance project to save lives by empowering paramedics to make critical interventions en route to hospitals.
Orange Botswana’ s 5G service in greater Gaborone and Francistown will cover 30% of the national population. Other cities will follow in early 2023. It is the services that will catch time imagination of the public. Orange Botswana is looking forward to collaborating with government and enterprises to implement 5G-based use cases. In November it opened an Orange Digital Centre to help bridge the digital divide and prepare Batswana youth for employment in a blossoming digital ecosystem.
The Connected Ambulance is possibly the service that will have the most impact and show locals how 5G could make practical improvements to their lives. The number of patients who die in ambulances through child birth complications, wounds and fever could be dramatically reduced by the telco’s telemedical support. The system was developed in partnership with MRI Botswana and is one of a number of social services Orange has prioritised as it brings its first ever 5G service to the African continent.
The telco has been frustrated by long waits for 5G spectrum licenses to be allocated, developing applications while it waited, according to Jerôme Henique, CEO for Orange Middle East and Africa. However, the wait is over and the digital transformation of Africa starts now, in Botswana, said Henique.
On the domestic front, Orange Botswana has introduced new 5G fixed broadband services and mobile data bundles. The offers are available for residential customers, small and medium enterprises and include value added services. The fixed offers are available from 15Mbps for Prepaid and from 20Mbps for Postpaid with a monthly rental from BWP 699 (€53 per month). The subscription of Prepaid offers is accessible through Orange Yame App, USSD and Card to Wallet. “5G will change how customers experience connectivity,” said Nene Maiga, CEO of Orange Botswana. The ultra-high speed and low latency conditions will support more e-health, connected vehicles and alternative realities.
Orange has been frustrated by the slow pace of 5G license attribution in the Middle East and Africa said Jerôme Henique, Orange’s CEO for the region. Orange said it is collaborating with several regulatory bodies to help build a 5G rollout roadmap while testing the technology and developing use cases that fit with the local populations’ need. This launch will allow Orange to cut its teeth and scale-up this technology for other Orange countries across Africa, said Henique. “This will promote Africa’s digital inclusion, resulting in socio-economic growth and job creation. Digital Transformation for begins here and now, in Botswana,” said Henique.