Botswana Stock Exchange listed BTC said it will continue to explore growth opportunities, especially in the broadband space, where penetration levels are still low and the demand for data services on the increase as it announced its interim financial statements for the six months ended 30 September 2017.
The company, which operates in the internet, mobile and fixed line spaces, managed to increase its revenues by 2% to P795 million from P776 million while Profit After Tax increased by 12% to P98m compared to P88m for the same period in the previous year.
But the company headed by Anthony Masunga admitted that competition in the telecommunications sector continues to intensify as new players enter the market at different levels of the telco value chain on the back of the new licensing framework.
“These developments however also present partnership opportunities. The intense competition has also put pressure on the mobile market which is experiencing high churn rates and margin squeeze,” a statement accompanying the results stated.
BTC said despite the subdued economic growth, it will continue to explore growth opportunities, especially in the broadband space, where penetration levels are still low and the demand for data services on the increase.
“We expect positive results from our 4G service, which we introduced in most urban and peri urban areas around the country,” it added.
The company said investments in new systems, infrastructure modernisation and expansion were P124m, financed internally. It added that liquidity remains strong with zero gearing. Cash balances were at P487m, sufficient to finance the operations and capital expenditure programme of the company.
BTC recently announced a partnership with Korean Telcom as it aims to deliver high Internet speeds of up to 50 Mega Bites per Second (Mbps) enabling it to provide tailor made fixed broadband and mobile broadband products for customers at the right quality of service at the right price.
The project comes at a time when Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) broadband copper access network fast reaching its technological end of life.