Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) is preparing to enter Botswana’s 5G market, with plans to invest more than US$17.8 million in network upgrades during the 2026/27 financial year.
The investment will support the rollout of 5G, expansion of 4G coverage and upgrades to network capacity as BTC works to meet growing demand for connectivity.
The plans are outlined in BTC’s recently released 2026 Integrated Report and follow more than US$16.7 million invested in network modernisation during the previous financial year.
BTC expects to launch commercial 5G services in selected areas of Gaborone by October 2026 before expanding the network to other cities and key villages.
The rollout will put BTC alongside Mascom Wireless and Orange Botswana, both of which launched commercial 5G services in 2022.
The operator is also working on several other network projects. These include upgrading the capacity of 599 mobile sites and moving customers from copper-based infrastructure to fibre and fixed wireless access technologies.
BTC expects to complete these projects by October, with the company saying they will improve network coverage, capacity and the overall customer experience.
A separate project to move fixed network services from legacy circuit-switched infrastructure to an IP Multimedia Subsystem platform is expected to be completed by December 2026.
BTC has already made significant progress in modernising its mobile network. During the previous financial year, it upgraded 151 sites from 2G to 4G, introduced Voice over LTE and added 29 new sites to address coverage gaps and congestion.
The company also established an Internet Packet Telephony gateway in Francistown to provide greater international route diversity.
BTC CEO Jürgen Peschel said the operator had now fully modernised its mobile network, with data services available at all sites where voice services were previously offered.
He added that capacity had increased by as much as five times at sites where data services were already available.
BTC, which is 51% government-owned, currently provides 97% population coverage through its 2G and 4G networks, while 3G coverage stands at 62%.
With the planned 5G launch, BTC is now moving into the next phase of its network expansion as competition in Botswana’s mobile market intensifies.
