MWEB Namibia has announced that it is changing its name to Africa Online.
This follows the acquisition of MWeb’s African companies and the AfricaOnline group by Telkom SA, and subsequent the integration of the companies under the Telkom-owned Pan-African company, iWay Africa.
Marc Gregan, General Manager for Namibia, explained that the local AfricaOnline company was absorbed by MWeb Namibia, after the Competition Commission approved the integration. ‘Obviously, use of the Telkom SA’s ‘iWay Africa’ mother brand was unsuitable for Namibia. Interbrand, the group handling the new Pan-African brand, recommended use of the AfricaOnline brand as the name for the Namibian company,’ he said. How does this affect Namibian Internet users? Gregan said other than the name change, Namibian Internet users will not be affected.’E-mail addresses will be valid for the foreseeable future, to allow users to change their stationery and alert their contacts at a pace which suits them. Domain names will still be valid. Prices remain unchanged.’Some of the temporary difficulties came about when ‘systems were migrated, but these were a matter of hours and were quickly rectified.’Although in the short term there will be no significant changes for users, Gregan said that ‘there are definitely very exciting changes ahead’.’Telkom has a Pan-African presence in 32 countries across the continent. It has exceptional Internet capabilities, in the form of shareholding in EASSY, the undersea cable running along the East African coast. ‘And more importantly for Namibia, its satellite capabilities are exceptionally strong. We intend to use the capabilities and the capacity of the new company to the hilt, as we have done in the past with the MWeb group,’ he said. Gregan said once the final aspects of the merger had been concluded, more elaborate information regarding any product changes would be dealt with. He underlined the various leads MWeb had taken so far, including being the first Internet service provider to introduce broadband. Gregan added that it was important to ‘shift the goalposts’ in order to keep up with user demands.With the fast-paced Internet landscape continuously changing, Gregan said there was awareness that Web usage was changing and bandwidth requirements were growing.Gregan says the company expected to grow by attracting users ‘with high-quality Internet products that consistently deliver on their promise’.He added that ‘our current subscriber profile is very much in line with the iWay Africa profile, which is biased towards individuals with college and postgraduate degrees, so we attract a higher LSM with more advanced Internet needs’. Gregan emphasised that the company was ‘Namibian through and through’.’We re-envision and customise products for Namibia. Our content is aggregated in Namibia. We reinvest profits in technology and hardware in Namibia. We produce our newsletters in Namibia. Our social investment policy goes to work for Namibia.’Gregan said the company focus was to lobby and foster ‘a number of innovative Namibian Web companies that have developed or are in the process of developing some very innovative Web applications for Namibia.’Namibian-based shareholders include Kalahari Holdings.’We are Pan-African in the sense that we share Pan-African experiences and transfer our learnings across countries, and we share a Pan-African support resource. ‘In terms of our content, we consciously carry news from Africa and issues that affect the continent.’
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