An open letter to Telecom Namibia

JORIS KOMEN WRITES:Dear Mr. Stanley Shanapinda, CEOMy geographic location in Brakwater makes it very difficult to access conventional Telecom services such as your wireless uncapped 4G/LTE internet solution.Fibre to the home would be very nice, but likely unaffordable given the distance to the nearest existing fibre infrastructure in the central Brakwater valley.On a steep hill between my home and Telecom's Elisenheim 4G infrastructure (6.94 km line of sight) I've been able to rig up a homemade solar-powered repeater which has a sim card configured for Telecom's “30-day unlimited Data Bundle”.This kit has generally worked well – mostly 24/7 (except during a few attempted solar panel thefts) since May 2017. It's even managed to get 35 Mb/s download and up to 17 Mb/s upload speeds. Kudos to your technical team in this regard!However, I do have a couple of issues.The “30-day unlimited Data Bundle” has recently become a 30 day + “whatever number of hours and minutes” to when this bundle expires - i.e., my current 30-day bundle expires at precisely 14h11:38 on 27 October. Which means I can only renew this bundle for another “30 days” at 14h12 onwards on the 27th October. Because of this peculiar time-fixed arrangement, it is impossible to pay online (e.g. EFT) - which puts me at Covid-risk standing in a queue at one of your Teleshops. This risky queuing is aggravated by the most bizarre requirement that the device, which has this pre-paid sim card, must be switched off.This requires me to climb up the steep hill (carrying a ladder), to unlock a secured box and power down the router. And wait for my angina to subside for the slide down the hill, and then drive 22 km into town to stand in a Covid-risky queue. And then repeat this exercise on my return home.At which stage I ponder the raison-d'être of “connected” life in Brakwater, and resort to a large glass of whisky to overcome the wear-and-tear of my internet-dependency.(I must likely be Telecom's only client who goes to such lengths to have 4G internet access at home for family and staff; indeed, my sons call me “woke”!)Late last year, and earlier this year, much to my delight, Telecom briefly provided a two-month, slightly discounted, pre-payment opportunity. This saved me on queues, Covid, petrol money, my heart condition and my liver. Much to my disappointment this service stopped abruptly in March/April, or thereabouts.Ideally, I would be happy to pay several months' worth of “30-day unlimited Data Bundles” in advance, online by EFT (hopefully with a pensioner's discount) so that I can avoid the monthly queues (and the ladder-carrying hillside scrambles). At very least, I should like to be able to use the internet (before it and I expire) to pay for the next 30-day bundle.Given the scale of Telecom's technical capabilities, are these issues really such difficult problems to solve? Some well-considered solutions would certainly extend my life and my internet-dependency with yourselves.

An open letter to Telecom Namibia

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Republikein 2025-10-23

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An open letter to Telecom Namibia

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Republikein 2025-10-23

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