Connectivity woes continue dogging farmers

Rural communities, most of them farmers, remain disconnected from essential services, education and economic opportunities that depend on reliable and affordable internet access.

This was the message a delegation from four farmers’ unions delivered to the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (Cran) at a meeting two weeks ago.

According to the latest issue of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) newsletter, the unions had approached Cran with numerous complaints, messages, personal visits and calls from members across the country.

“Besides NAU, the other unions which met with Cran on 13 March were the Namibia National Farmers’ Union, the Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers’ Union and the Previously Disadvantaged Namibian Farmers Union,” says the newsletter.

At the meeting, the farmers presented Cran with the results of a communication survey in which 1 900 people participated.

“Only 40.7% of respondents have a telephone connection, 37.5% sometimes do and 21.8% have no telephone connection at all,” notes the survey.

Only 46% of respondents have an internet connection, while 34.4% sometimes do and 19.6% have no internet connection.

The survey further found that 91.9% of respondents indicated having no or very limited telecommunication possibilities – with a mere 8.1% of all participants satisfied with their facilities.

According to the newsletter, new technology and possibilities for Namibia were discussed at the meeting, with so-called ‘Low Earth Orbit’ systems that require no or little physical infrastructure being prominent.

According to Cran, one of these providers, Starlink, had submitted an application to be a new service provider to the authority, which forwarded it to the minister of information and communications technology, for consideration with regard to special permission in respect of Namibian shareholding.

Also raised at the meeting was that since many NAU members use the Telecom WiMax product, the union had reached out to the service provider who said the product will no longer be offered in the near future.

This service will be phased out in two years as Cran reportedly wants to use the bandwidth for other services.

This phase-out will affect at least 9 000 WiMax customers in the rural areas.

However, the government, through the Universal Service Fund, has allocated N$145 million over the next three years to enhance digital connectivity in rural areas and underserved communities.

The fund was launched by Cran last week to help mobile network operators overcome the challenges of expanding services in areas with high-risk and low-return potential.

– email: matthew@namibian.com.na