Telecoms changes in SA this year
The first few months of 2011 are set to be a busy time in the South African telecommunications market, with many management changes and even retrenchments looming at the major telecoms operators.
Telkom
Telkom is currently headed up by Jeffrey Hedberg as acting CEO, and the Department of Communications (DoC) may want to have a permanent leader in place before their golden share expires in March.
It is not only the Telkom Group CEO position which is currently held in an acting capacity. Of Telkom’s six top managers, four are in an acting capacity, which includes the company’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief of Human Resources.
For the company to succeed in building their main focus areas – which includes growing their mobile operator 8ta, increasing their broadband user base, growing their national backbone network and boosting their Cybernest division – a stable management team will be of great help.
MTN
MTN recently announced that Sifiso Dabengwa will replace Phuthuma Nhleko as MTN Group CEO when Nhleko steps down on 31 March 2011. MTN further announced that it has been decided to abolish the position of Chief Operating Officer and rather appoint a Chief Executive Officer of MTN Group’s International Operations (MTNI).
This sparked renewed speculation that MTN may relocate its international division to Dubai and even sell off its South African business.
Dobek Pater, a director at Africa Analysis, recently told Business Times that “MTN may want to draw a distinction between its international and local business, possibly even with the view of selling MTN SA.”
Vodacom
Vodacom announced in late December 2010 that Vodacom SA MD Shameel Joosub will be taking up the post of CEO of Vodafone Spain as of 1 April 2011.
Joosub is one of the key figures at Vodacom, and it will not be easy to find a suitable replacement to fill his shoes.
Neotel
At the end of 2010 it emerged that Neotel is ‘realigning and restructuring’ its business, which may see retrenchments at the second national operator.
It is no secret that Neotel has been struggling to gain traction in some market segments – most notably in the consumer arena – and we may well see some big changes at the company to try to bring it to profitability.
Department of Communications (DoC)
Roy Padayachie and Obed Bapela took over from Siphiwe Nyanda and Dina Pule as communications minister and deputy minister respectively, a move which was widely welcomed by the telecoms community.
The DoC was described as ‘a sinking ship’ by acting director-general at the DoC, Harold Wesso, in a presentation to Parliament on 10 August 2010. Padayachie has a tough job ahead of him to fix the DoC and solve all the prevailing staff problems.
Padayachie promised toward the end of 2010 that he will fill all DoC vacancies, which includes a permanent director general, within the next six months.
This will be a much needed ingredient not only to create a more functional department but also to make good on other promises, such as completing the full Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) process by November 2011.
Cell C
Cell C continues to make headlines for the right reasons – growing its 21 Mbps HSPA+ network and launching aggressively priced broadband offerings.
Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt indicated last year that they are aiming for an impressive 97% population coverage by the end of 2011 – good news for consumers outside of the major cities which were covered in 2010.
The ITU also recently announced that ‘LTE and WiMax, and other evolved 3G technologies’ can now be called 4G, opening the door for Cell C to challenge the previous ASA rulings prohibiting the company from calling its network 4G or 4Gs.
Telecoms in SA in 2011 << What else do you think will happen?
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