MTN South Africa expects to save R9.1 billion in operational expenditure in the next 10 years, by providing its own fixed-line infrastructure. <\/p>\n
The cellphone network operator was laying its own fibreoptic cable to carry rapidly increasing data traffic from customers, mainly big companies, chief technical officer Sammer Dave said on Friday. <\/p>\n
It was expanding its network because of declining service levels from Telkom, he said. <\/p>\n
He added that the company had not been able to receive lines and had experienced quality problems with Telkom. <\/p>\n
The first leg of its fixed-line project is in one of the high-traffic zones: Johannesburg has been completed and the service is expected to go live next month. <\/p>\n
Dave said that it had already linked some of the financial services companies and stockbroking firms working out of Rosebank and Sandton.<\/p>\n
Tim Lowry, the managing director of MTN SA, said that trials in Johannesburg (between Rosebank and Sandton) had ended last month. <\/p>\n
MTN would spend about R150 million to expand the network in some parts of Gauteng. This would be fully operational by the third quarter of next year. By expanding the fixed-line network, the cellular operator would save about R2.8 billion in operational expenditure in the next 10 years. <\/p>\n
The next leg, which is expected to be finalised before the 2010 soccer World Cup, will be a 5000km fibreoptic cable network in major metropolitan areas. This will cost MTN about R1.4 billion and help save R6.3 billion in the next 10 years.<\/p>\n
MTN might partner with other firms to build the network, said Lowry, adding that an announcement could be made in the next 10 weeks. <\/p>\n
MTN had several partnering options, including Neotel, the second national operator, which is also rolling out its fixed and wireless networks.<\/p>\n
MTN rival Vodacom and major municipalities such as the City of Johannesburg are building their own networks, mainly to cut their reliance on Telkom, reduce costs and position themselves for expected growth in the data market.<\/p>\n
MTN’s fixed-line network investments are part of the R7 billion capital expenditure planned for this year. However, the bulk of the capital will be used for upgrading the network in both urban and rural areas, as the cellphone operator is targeting 10 million new subscribers in the next three years.<\/p>\n
The network would be capable of supplying 48 million customers with signal, said Dave. It currently handled 19.5 million active subscribers.<\/p>\n
Lowry said MTN SA was experiencing strong customer growth despite analysts saying that the market was saturated. <\/p>\n
"We are connecting [customers] faster that we were in 2007 … We are still enjoying double-digit growth," he said. <\/p>\n
MTN is a Fifa 2010 global partner. As part of this commitment it will spend R250 million for a network in stadiums, fan parks, shopping malls, hotels and tourist areas.<\/p>\n