Com-Link Botswana Competitors

Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) was established in 1980 to provide, develop, operate and manage Botswana's national and international telecommunications services. BTC is a parastatal in which the Botswana government holds 100% equity. In 1996, an amendment of the BTC Act repealed the monopoly of BTC and introduced indirect competition through two cellular joint venture consortiums, Mascom Wireless and Vista Communications (now Orange). The Act further established a regulatory authority and liberalised the market with particular emphasis on customer premises equipment and value added services, many of which are now in full competition to BTC.

Mascom is the mobile market leader in Botswana with close to 1.6 million customers across the board. Following its innovation drive Mascom was the first operator to deploy a 3G network in Botswana (2008) and it is one of the first operators of the SADC region to deploy a 4G/LTE pilot. Mascom was licensed on February 17th 1998 as one of the companies assigned to establish, maintain and operate a GSM mobile network in Botswana. The Mascom network was launched five weeks after licensing, establishing a reputation of credibility and innovation to date.

Econet is a privately held diversified telecommunications group with operations and investments in Africa, Europe, South America, North America and the East Asia Pacific Rim, offering products and services in the core areas of mobile and fixed telephony services, broadband, internet, satellite and fibre optic networks. The company also has investments beyond the traditional telecoms sector, which include financial services, insurance, e-commerce, renewable energy, education, Coca-Cola bottling, hospitality, media and payment gateway solutions. Econet was founded in 1993 by Strive Masiyiwa, who first came to international prominence when he fought a five-year constitutional legal battle leading to the removal of the state monopoly in Zimbabwe’s telecommunications sector. The landmark ruling is regarded as one of the milestones in the opening up of African telecommunications to private capital. Econet subsidiaries include Econet Global, Econet Wireless International, Econet Wireless Africa, Econet Enterprises, Econet Media (Kwesé TV) and the Liquid Telecom Group. Our focus is on the positive transformation of our customer’s lives and the communities in which we operate – “Inspired To Change Your World”.