New ownership for AfricaOnline

Regional niche internet service provider AfricaOnline yesterday announced the official change in ownership of the company under Gondwana International Networks (GIN). Operating as a subsidiary of Telkom South Africa since 2007, the national telecommunications company has cited a shift in priorities to its core fixed-line and mobile service options as reason. The deal includes all eight the company’s IWay Africa ISP operations, including in Namibia, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In a statement released to the media yesterday, Namibian general manager for AfricaOnline Marc Gregan said the ownership change would not result in any change or interruption in service to local AfricaOnline clients. Rather, he said the new structure would allow the company to continue building on its track record of innovation and continuous improvement. “Our new parent, Gondwana International Networks, is able to provide us with exceptional technological capability. It has experience in a wide range of countries on the continent,” Gregan said. He pointed to the company’s recent introduction of its low-cost, satellite internet service Nawasat in partnership with global satellite bandwidth providers Senior Executive Service (SES), as among its key contributions to the market. He added that AfricaOnline was currently leading the market with regard to cost reduction in out-of-bundle bandwidth (at N$69 per Gigabyte (GB). “Provision of internet and network services is an extremely dynamic field. Gondwana has shown that it is capable of providing sound technology that reduces risks at the cutting edge of technology, and it adapts to African environments,” Gregan said. “In other words, we believe that Gondwana is a perfect match for our technology approach, and AfricaOnline will continue to be Namibia’s technology leader,” he added. AfricaOnline was originally started in 1994 as an online news service by three Kenyan students, later evolving into that country’s first Internet Service Provider (ISP).