The Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications
Corporation (STPC) has been converted from a government department into a
corporation in 1986. The Corporation reports to the
Minister for Tourism, Environment and Communications, and is responsible for the
operation, maintenance and development of postal and telecommunications services
nationally. Added to these, are regulatory duties involving frequency spectrum management,
type approval and licensing.
As part of its modernisation
programme, STPC is currently engaged in the rehabilitation, expansion and upgrading of the
telephone network. As an ongoing exercise, all transmission lines are being upgraded from
analog to digital, ensuring clearer and more reliable connections.
Future prospects include:
- spending an average of E 60m (around
US$ 1 million) per annum over the next 20 years to further upgrade the infrastructure,
increase the telephone density and ensure an orderly network expansion to effectively
respond to service needs generated by national socio-economic growth.
- the introduction in 1998 of a mobile
telephony system with international roaming facilities.
- planned Corporation restructuring,
mainly separating the Telecommunications operation from the Postal Division and
commercialising/liberalising the telecommunications business.
- the installation of a Data
Communication Network to provide high speed data services. This is the beginning of
a linkage to the information super highway.
- the installation of card pay phones
at strategic places throughout the country.
- the introduction of Internet
Cafes and telephone bureaus at the Mbabane and Manzini Post Offices.
The Internet Cafe at Manzini was
officially opened in February 1998. Situated in the Post Office, the Internet Café is
linked to UUNET's global network via Internet Africa's point-of-presence (POP) in Mbabane.
The tariffs (customer charges) for
basic services for both Postal and Telecommunications for the financial year 1999/2000
have been reviewed. This has resulted in an increase of 7% for both telecommunications and
postal services and the new charges have been effective from the 1st April 1999.
Accordingly, the new tariffs look as follows (where US$ 1.00 = E 6.22 as of May
1999):
| PSTN
installation charge |
US$ 26.00 (Residential) , US$ 43.00 (Business) |
| PSTN
rental per month |
US$ 2.23 (Residential), US$ 3.91 (Business) |
| PSTN
three minute local call (up to 20 km) |
US$ 0.09 |
| Long
distance call (over 50 km) per 3 minutes |
0.27 |
| International
call to South Africa per 3 minutes |
US$ 1.40 |
| Leased
line 64 kbps to South Africa |
US$ 452.00 (Service available to RSA) |
Source:
Swaziland Post and Telecommunication Corporation - April 1999
Cellular (Mobile) phone
network
SPTC has issued in May 1997 an
international tender for the launching of the first GSM network in the country. The
successful bidder will enter into a joint venture with SPTC. The latter will own 51% of
the equity, whereas the remaining will be shared by the strategic partner (30%) and the
Swazi nation (19%). In 1998, MTN was awarded a license to install and operate a GSM
cellular network as a joint venture with SPTC.
Card phone network
Plans are undeway to install card
pay phones at strategic places throughout the country.
A RINAF
Workshop on Internet Technologies was held at the University of Swaziland,
Kwaluseni, December 9-13, 1996, following a request from the University to UNESCO/RINAF
project. During the undertaking of the workshop, UniSwa was connected via
an analog land-line leased from Swazi PTT and Telkom South Africa to UNINET, the South
African academic network, at the University of the Witwatersrand. UniSwa
experienced multiple connectivity problems which were attributed to the line quality and
to the modems, and efforts to solve these had failed. The workshop has been highly
instrumental in solving these problems and sharing expertise in the technology.
The Sixth All Africa
Telecommunications, Informatics and Broadcasting Conference was carried out between 19 and
23 of May 1997 in Swaziland. A CyberCafe was established to allow participants and
visitors to learn, browse, e-mail and access to Internet. The wireless Internet link was
organised by AFCOM with Transtel, South Africa for a 256 Kbit direct satellite connection
to the backbone of the Internet in the United States. Twenty-five computers courtesy of
ACER were swiftly installed and networked by Swaziland Computer Services. The rest
of the Computers were provided by Real Image Internet connected to the Internet via
64 Kbit wire lines from Swaziland Posts and Telecoms.
There are currently 2 Internet Service Providers in
Swaziland with points of presence in Mbabane and Manzini.
