1 September 2026
Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) will launch 5G in selected parts of Gaborone in October 2026, marking its entry into Botswana’s commercial 5G market.
Majority state-owned operator Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) has made plans to launch 5G in selected parts of Gaborone in October 2026, marking its entry into Botswana’s commercial 5G market.
To strengthen its network infrastructure, the company has committed more than 240 million Botswana Pula (US$17.8 million) for the 2026/27 financial year, focusing on 5G deployment, 4G expansion and increased network capacity.
The planned investment is slightly higher than the BWP225.5 million ($16.7 million) BTC spent on network modernisation and expanding coverage in the previous financial year.
BTC detailed these plans and achievements in its recently released 2026 Integrated Report.
According to BTC CEO Jürgen Peschel, the company has fully modernised its mobile network. He said that data services are now available at all sites where it previously offered only voice services, while capacity at existing data sites has increased by up to fivefold.
“We have rolled out 5G to deliver higher performance. In fibre, BTC continues to swap out legacy copper and is extending further into rural areas. Fibre is now available in ten locations across the country,” Peschel continued in the report.
BTC enters 5G race
BTC’s 5G launch will intensify competition with Mascom Wireless and Orange Botswana, which entered Botswana’s commercial 5G market in 2022. In its report, the telco said the Gaborone launch will be followed by a 5G expansion to other cities and villages across Botswana. The company added that the October launch in Gaborone will coincide with capacity upgrades at 599 mobile sites and the migration of fixed-line customers from copper to fibre and fixed wireless access (FWA) technologies.
“The target is to complete these key initiatives by October 2026, ensuring the timely delivery of improved coverage, capacity and overall customer experience,” the telco explained in the report.
BTC added that it upgraded 151 sites from 2G to 4G and launched voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) during the previous financial year. The telco also enhanced its network footprint by deploying 29 new sites to close coverage gaps and reduce congestion and established an Internet Packet Telephony gateway in the country’s second city, Francistown, to provide greater international route diversity.
The telco said its mobile network now delivers 97% population coverage for 2G and 4G services, and 62% for 3G.
Source: https://shorturl.at/d1DcZ
