MTN plans R7,1bn in capital expenditure (South Africa)To increase the network capacity and coverage MTN is planning to spend R7, 1bn this year. Comparing the South African operations last year the spending is roughly double the amount invested. The plans centre on laying fibreoptic cables in urban areas of Gauteng and laying another 5000km of lines to create a national backbone. That will end its reliance on leasing lines from Telkom for its network backbone.
Tim Lowry (MTN, South Africa,MD) said it would lay the cables in conjunction with another operator to save them both money and minimise the disruption to traffic as roads are dug up. “We are building strong capacity, which will allow us to do multiple things in the future,” Lowry said. The capacity needed to carry voice calls was very predictable, he added, but when data transmissions were involved far more capacity was needed.
Chief technology officer Sameer Dave said MTN’s priorities included boosting capacity in buildings such as shopping malls, airports and hotels and in reaching untapped rural areas. “Self-provisioning is one of our major objectives to wean us away from our reliance on Telkom,” Dave said. “We are completely dependent on Telkom and we are not able to get links from them and the lines are going down every now and then. Almost 50% to 60% of our down time is related to Telkom issues,” he said.
MTN was signing up customers faster than a year ago, in a market that many thought was nearing saturation. “The market will continue to grow at a significant rate for another two years, with 9-million to 10-million additional customers that the networks can fight over,” he further added.
