As new restrictions are imposed on businesses due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, resilient and robust networks will be essential in helping employees work from home for an extended period.
The outbreak of COVID-19 is presenting new challenges to societies and economies all across the world. It is also presenting new challenges to networks, which are playing a critical role in keeping people and businesses connected during this pandemic.
The spread of coronavirus has so far been slower across Africa than other regions. As a result, Liquid Intelligent Technologies has yet to see much change to usage on our network. However, that is expected to change as more governments step up their efforts to prevent the spread of the virus by restricting social interactions – leading to an expected rise in network traffic as more people work from home.
Here are some of the ways that Liquid Intelligent Technologies is working to ensure that Africa’s largest fibre network is ready to support the increased demands of our business customers across the continent:
- Across all our markets, we have enough network capacity in place to absorb the expected rise in network traffic. In particular, this can help large enterprises as they try to manage the increased number of connections into their corporate Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and conferencing services.
- In South Africa, the completion of a major enhancement to our core network last year means we can serve our enterprise, government and wholesale customers with virtually unlimited capacity. This makes our network one of the country’s most technologically advanced and ensures we can cater to the needs of all our customers. Our broadband fibre customers can also use our self-service customer portal to request for additional bandwidth based on their requirements – allowing them to boost usage for a day, a week or a month during the pandemic.
- In Zimbabwe, we have begun offering our enterprise customers faster internet speeds and higher bandwidth at no additional costs. This CSR initiative by Liquid Intelligent Technologies is a much-needed boost for enterprises at a time when Zimbabweans are not only battling the growing economic crisis but are now also preparing for the spread of coronavirus. Many customers are already experiencing internet speeds up to 50% faster than before, helping them to maintain service delivery during this challenging period.
- In Kenya, we are also helping our enterprise customers prepare their operations for the pandemic by providing them with additional bandwidth at discounted prices. In particular, we’ve seen an increase in demand from customers in the financial services, hospitality and service sector for greater network capacity. We will also be doubling bandwidth for all our home internet customers with a connection under 100mbps for one month.
- Across all our countries of operation, our network support teams remain on the ground to resolve any service issues or disruptions. Our teams are well resourced to support customers remotely or physically under safe conditions.
- Finally, we’ve begun offering business customers free trials of our Liquid Virtual Workplace solution for the next six months. We can empower your staff to work at home more productively and efficiently using Microsoft Teams and Office 365. As the African continent braces itself for more outbreaks of the coronavirus, these cloud-based services are designed to keep your business running smoothly – wherever your team may be during this challenging period.
In a recent interview with CNBC Africa, our Group Chief Operating Officer, Ahmad Mokhles, discusses how our networks are ready to support businesses during COVID-19. He also talks about the importance of good internet connectivity as working from home has become the new normal and is no longer a luxury. Click here to watch the full interview.
