Sierra Leone’s leading telecoms company, Orange Sierra Leone has come up with a new 4GPlus internet service for its customers. The new service could double twice the speed of the 4G service. The introduction of the new service further places Orange Sierra Leone an edge over all telecoms services in the country.
The disclosure was made by Head of Legal and Corporate Affairs for Orange Sierra Leone during a press briefing at Orange headquaters at Hill Station in Freetown.
The Corporate Head, Haffie Haffner told journalists that while the company looked forward to launching the 5G network, it had taken the lead to introduce the new service to ease internet communication.
She is quite hopeful that other companies would follow suit but Orange Sierra Leone has surely taken the lead. “Although other companies would also introduce the service, Orange Sierra Leone has been the first to bring it to Sierra Leone,” she said.
Madam Haffner also informed journalists that over 30 sites in Freetown have got the service, and customers could access it. She said Orange Sierra Leone had come a long way in the corporate world. “In five years, we have achieved the highest quality of service in the country,” she said.
In 2019, she continued, the company launched the 4G network to ensure the highest satisfaction for its numerous customers. The network was referred to as the ‘DI RIAL 4G,’ and its speed was second to none.
“We are working to increase the speed, and to expand the bandwith so that you could get the highest satisfaction,” Madam Haffner assured Orange customers. When Orange Sierra Leone took over in 2016, Madam Haffner went on, the company was fraught with a number of challenges, but they had been surmounted through committed leadership. Madam Haffner also touched on the viability of the company’s Public Relations portfolio. She said Orange Sierra Leone took pride in an elaborate and viable CSR which had been transformed into a foundation headed by a Chief Executive Officer. The foundation would be launched in June this year.
Orange Foundation has today become one of the most Viable units within Orange Sierra Leone.
Through the Foundation, Orange Sierra Leone has given back much of its resources to society. Head of the Foundation, Jestina Betts also spoke about most of the achievements recorded by the foundation since it was set up. The Orange Foundation Director informed the press that the unit was fully functional since January, 2020. The Foundation, she went on, was however tested by the outbreak of the Corona Virus Disease but it emerged stronger.
Madam Betts said, through the foundation, Orange Sierra Leone worked with government in the area of Free Quality Education which is government flagship Project. Its cooperation with government in the education project came after the company pledged to work with government for five years. The ties between the company and government saw the construction of three Early Childhood Schools amounting to over Le1.6 billion.
“The first school was commissioned in Mayakie Village by the Minister of Education, another school in Makeni and the third school in Moyamba,” Madam Betts told the press. Apart from its investment in the Free quality Education project, the company also invested in maternal health to save the lives of pregnant women, lactating mothers and under-five children.
Quite recently, she said, Orange Sierra Leone launched one of the most ambitious maternal health projects in the biggest slum community, Kroo Bay amounting to Le3.6 billion. The launching of the maternal health project was a complementary effort to government’s Free Health Care policy.
“A screening booth was erected in the community for all pregnant women and a toll free line which can be contacted in case a pregnant woman needs urgent help,” she said.
The investment of resources in the maternal health project was prompted by the alarming rate at which women and children were losing their lives.
The company, she said, also took Ebola kids at SOS school in Freetown with an annual budget of Le235M. She said Le300M which was donated by Orange office was used by the Orange Foundation to help the Sierra Leone Autistic Society, National School for the Deaf and Dumb, Milton Margai School for the Blind among others. Apart from the recent, glorious achievements, the Orange Foundation Director also told the press that Foundation had a pile of goodies in stock which it would unfold.
She said the Foundation which had been working with National Youth Commission would establish a Women Digital Centre for skills training. The centre, she said, would cater for women and girls who had dropped out of school.
“The centre is 98% complete, and will be the first leading technological school for women in the country,” she said.
Orange Paris, she continued, also had an intiative in which schools that wanted to go digital would be supported to realise their dream.
The initiative, she said, would be rolled out in July, this year, adding that ten schools stand to benefit. Orange foundation has also joined forces to make Sierra Leone a Malaria Free zone. It would spend its resources in sanitation to ensure a clean environment.
See next edition.