I’ve just returned from an unforgettable holiday in Namibia. Between big five animal tracks and endless desert horizons, I couldn’t resist sneaking the occasional look at the country’s telecoms networks—cue my wife’s frequent eyerolls. I found a country racing ahead on connectivity, both #fibre and 4G. I saw operators grappling with the same competitive pressures familiar to Europe and North America. Yet Namibia also enjoys a chance to leapfrog current telco thinking, adopting new models and fresh ideas.
Namibia faces distinctive telecom challenges. With the second-lowest population density in the world, it spans twice the area of Germany but has fewer people than Berlin. Its population is split evenly between urban centres and remote rural communities. The market includes two government-affiliated mobile network operators— MTC Namibia and Telecom Namibia —and a business-oriented private player, Paratus Namibia . During a visit to Windhoek’s townships, our guides noted MTC as the top choice for mobile and Telecom Namibia for WiFi, reflecting their roots in mobile and fixed-line services, respectively. Outside major cities, I was struck by cell towers disguised as tall forest trees—standing in arid desert landscapes. These weren’t attempts to conceal infrastructure, but statements of progress—likely marking the arrival of new 4G coverage.
Welcome return of an old friend.
Our travel operator supplied a classic Nokia brick phone for emergencies. With no data roaming, we relied on hotel WiFi where available—or simply embraced being off-grid. In truth, we never fully disconnected, as every lodge had basic WiFi. We never needed the emergency phone, but on long stretches of road with no cars, people, or villages in sight, it offered quiet reassurance. Mobile telephony remains a vital global safety net—even if, in this case, MTC earned nothing from us beyond a standard SIM contract. Voice and text still matter in Namibia. Many guides and hotel staff we met worked six-week shifts before returning home—often hundreds of miles away. For them, mobile phones remain the lifeline to family and community. As one guide put it, before mobile, people would leave for work and sometimes never return—forgotten by their community.
An increasingly connected country.
Our 2018 guidebook warned of patchy internet access, but the reality in 2025 was very different.
- On arrival in Windhoek, I had a key meeting and chose a hotel based on its WiFi—it turned out to be excellent. I joined a video call with the US, UK, and Namibia without a problem. The connection was better than in many UK hotels.
- The Internet/WiFi in major cities was consistently strong.
- Even the remote lodges we stayed at offered some level of WiFi. Speeds varied, especially during peak hours when everyone connected to the free public network, but it was there when needed.
- In rural areas, most connectivity came via microwave radio links (Fixed Wireless Access), with camps often relying on three large aerials to receive a signal from a main tower. One lodge owner even installed a microwave repeater on a nearby mountain to secure coverage.
- The biggest rural connectivity issue wasn’t reach—it was resilience. During the rainy season, lightning often damaged base stations, and access roads made repairs difficult. One lodge expected to lose data service every January and February, but had a 4-metre-high antenna in place for basic 2G/3G voice as backup.
Full Fibre Namibia
Paratus, an African fibre provider, has already connected most major cities in Namibia—covering about 55% of the population, notably those with higher spending power. They’re linked to two submarine cables, providing strong international bandwidth. I suspect both my Windhoek and Swakopmund hotels were running on their network. Paratus’s fibre footprint now spans all major towns and tracks most of Namibia’s major roadways—laying the groundwork for future mobile infrastructure. If mobile operators tap into this backbone, we could see much denser 4G coverage along key transport routes, backed directly by fibre.
We passed one town where Paratus had recently rolled out fibre, with adverts for fibre, WiFi, and 4G on nearly every lamppost. What stood out was how familiar the messaging was—promises of speed and reliability nearly identical to 5G and fibre adverts in the UK. It was a reminder that 5G has so far failed to offer consumers a compelling reason to pay more for 5G —4G and fibre are delivering the same benefits in Namibia.
The challenges of telco upsell are global
- There is always spam! Throughout the trip, we received a steady stream of spam texts and calls. MTC seemed eager to upgrade our mobile contract with special offers, demonstrating the challenges of MNOs knowing their customer are global.
- As tourists, we didn’t need mobile data. Services we’d typically use in the UK—like maps, podcasts, and music—were easy to pre-download over hotel WiFi. Would we have liked to stay connected on the move? Yes. Would we pay extra for it? Probably not.
- Expecting limited card acceptance, we brought cash, based on older travel habits from South Africa a decade ago. But Namibia has moved on. Most petrol stations and hotels now accept cards, thanks to solid connectivity. Cash was only really needed for tipping, where the local workforce remains mostly cash-based.
- One of our highlights—spotting a leopard in Etosha—was made possible by a safari guide WhatsApp group, where sightings are shared in real time. Even in a country still transitioning from 3G to 4G, communication is clearly shifting to non-telco platforms, bypassing traditional voice and SMS altogether.
Private Networks and Network APIs in the Wild
At the AfriCat and Okonjima Namibia Centre—where leopards are rehabilitated and released into the wild—we saw firsthand the importance of reliable animal tracking. In Namibia, wild animal/human conflict is common, and tracking helps prevent both livestock loss and the killing of wild animals. Over the years, AfriCat has adopted increasingly advanced technologies, most recently using LoRa for long-range, low-power tracking.
The main challenge? Battery life. The tracking collars are still bulky, and the GPS module draws significant power—ironically, often failing just when location data is most critical.
This raised an interesting thought: could mobile-based positioning, enabled by MNOs via network APIs (such as CAMARA https://appledoreresearch.com/report/camara/), or even a lightweight private mobile network, offer a more efficient alternative? By offloading positioning away from GPS, battery life could be extended. While both Network APIs and Private Networks still struggle with clear business cases globally, wildlife tracking—especially where it intersects with human conflict—could be a compelling real-world use case to demonstrate what’s possible.