Telkom mobile: LTE planned
Telkom today shed light on their mobile strategy which forms a core part of the company’s strategy to compensate for declining fixed line voice revenues.
“Telkom is at an inflection point with growth in traditional fixed-line voice revenues declining. The majority of global fixed-line incumbents have discovered that a successful operation requires an integrated mobile business,” Telkom said.
According to Telkom it has a competitive advantage by virtue of its existing business and customer base. “This is particularly so as wireless growth slows and converged data becomes more prevalent,” said Telkom.
“A product range spanning both mobile and fixed value pools will assist Telkom to defend itself more effectively against competitors and to grow revenues. The mobile business is designed to also assist Telkom in addressing fixed-line cost challenges and to position Telkom more competitively in the market.”
Simplicity, Quality and Value
Telkom says it plans to enter the mobile market with Simplicity, Quality and Value as its three main guiding principles. Telkom believes that these principles will create differentiated product and service offerings in the South African mobile market.
Telkom is planning to extend its use of mobile technology to offer fixed-line services in areas where Telkom is experiencing operational challenges such as copper theft, breakages and slow copper roll-out to new greenfield areas.
Telkom network and coverage
Telkom has signed a national roaming agreement with MTN which covers services such as Voice, 2G and 3G data, SMS, MMS and USSD on a national basis.
Telkom will also offer a full international roaming service at launch through ‘another established and experienced international service provider’.
Telkom further announced that their mobile interconnect agreement negotiations with other mobile and fixed operators are at an advanced stage.
Telkom said that the suppliers for their Information Technology and Networks are AMDOCS (for FAB Services) and Huawei (for Network and Billing support services).
The mobile network deployed by Telkom Mobile is an IP Radio Access Network (RAN). “This technology allows Telkom the flexibility to quickly deploy newer mobile technologies and dynamically change configurations on the mobile network,” Telkom said.
The technology used for Telkom Mobile’s backhaul is IP over Ethernet or IP over TDM. “A differentiating feature is the use of co-transmission of 2G and 3G traffic onto the same backhaul circuit and prioritisation of traffic. This allows maximum efficiency of the backhaul while providing the relevant prioritisation of mobile service flows.,” Telkom said.
“A further enhancement is the deployment of Software Definable Radios allowing significant flexibility in terms of how 2G, 3G and, in the future, 4G is rolled out within the network. These systems are useful in improving spectrum utilisation efficiency and are LTE ready ensuring that Telkom is able to match subscriber expectations well into the future.”
According to Telkom their radio network is also more power efficient and environmentally friendly using almost 30% less power than previous legacy systems.
The core network architecture deployed is also based on a full IP based network. “Class leading assurance, subscriber management and service management components are being deployed to ensure enhanced quality of experience (QoE) for the end user to help deliver on our quality differentiation,” Telkom said.
Telkom ordered 2,000 base stations which are in the process of being constructed. Telkom plans to have 40% of their own population covered at launch which will be grown as required over five years. Full national coverage will be provided through their roaming agreement with MTN.
Telkom estimates that the capital expenditure required to implement mobility will be a maximum of R6 billion over five years. “We are negotiating innovative financing structures with our suppliers in order to potentially reduce our capital investment in favour of operating lease-type payments which include technology renewal. We are also continuing to negotiate arrangements with distributors and retailers.”
Telkom service offerings
Telkom will initially offer the following mobile products and services to the market:
- Prepaid, postpaid and hybrid voice
- Prepaid, postpaid and hybrid data
These products will be provided by a unified 2G voice and data and 3G (including HSPA) voice and data network.
At the end of March 2010 we had 16,299 W-CDMA subscribers, an increase of 210.3% from 5,253 subscribers reported at March 2009.
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