By CHUSA SICHONE –
MTN Zambia has invested about US$15 million in setting up an optic fibre network in some parts of the country to accelerate data transfer.
About $10 million has been injected in optic fibre installation to run from Nakonde to Tanzania while the remaining $5 million was allocated to finance a similar undertaking from Chingola to Kalumbila Mine in North-Western Province.
MTN Zambia network performance and service level agreement senior manager Chisanga Kaziya said the company had embarked on building its own fibre infrastructure to avoid spending colossal sums of money by transmitting data through neighbouring countries.
Currently, MTN Zambia connects through three different points namely, Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania  to EassyCable Windhoek in Namibia, to access the West Africa Cable System and through Zimbabwe to South Africa, to access the SEACOM cable to provide the required redundancy for its customers.
Mr Kaziya said MTN Zambia was building the fibre network within the country to ensure that it connected to Tanzania in the first phase using its fibre to provide the needed capacity to its customers.
This will also interface with Tanzania and consequently Eassycable at a cost of $10 million.
He said the $5 million fibre investment was to ensure that MTN Zambia linked the new mines to the international routes.
Mr Kaziya said that Zambia, being a landlocked country, had to connect through its neighbours to the landing stations.
He said Zambia connected to the international community through Zurich, in Switzerland, and Geneva for voice calls while it interconnected to London at Telecity for data services.
MTN Zambia chief executive officer Charles Molapisi said the firm was currently the only mobile service provider offering the 4G (Long-Term Evolution) used for high speed data network and assured that the company would continue investing in Zambia.
MTN Zambia national enterprise sales manager Maloba Musenge said the company had gone beyond providing mobile services  as it was currently offering, among other services, voice and fixed internet services to 12 mining houses as well as to 16 out of the 18 commercial banks in the country.