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MTN CEO pushes for spectrum allocation

Paula Gilbert
By Paula Gilbert, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 19 May 2016
We need to find ways to put pressure on the right people to make sure spectrum gets allocated, says MTN SA CEO Mteto Nyati.
We need to find ways to put pressure on the right people to make sure spectrum gets allocated, says MTN SA CEO Mteto Nyati.

Consumers' wallets are suffering because of telecoms operators' lack of access to spectrum.

This was the view expressed by MTN SA CEO, Mteto Nyati, speaking at a media briefing in Sandton today.

"On the one hand, we have government saying we need to reduce the cost of communication. The fact that we are not allocating this spectrum is in fact doing exactly the opposite. We are increasing the cost of communication because we have to invest even more in what we call densification because we don't have the spectrum. This is not helping consumers at all," according to Nyati.

He said lack of spectrum is a "big problem" facing SA.

"We need to find ways to put pressure on the right people to make sure this spectrum gets allocated."

He said when consumers complain about network quality, they usually think it's the telecoms operator's fault but this is true "only around 20% of the time".

"Largely it is driven by the fact that we do not have the spectrum. We need to have the spectrum to be able to deliver the kind of services we would like to deliver to our customers."

Nyati noted 98% of subscribers in SA are being served by just 40% of the allocated spectrum.

"The other 60% is not being used; it is just sitting there and not being leveraged. We as an industry need to find ways to make sure the spectrum that has been allocated is easy to trade, so that the people who need it can get it and we can serve our country."

He also expressed his worries about government policies that could affect his industry, pointing out telecommunications is among the few industries that seem to be doing well at the moment.

"We worry about policies that have never been tested that we are going to be experimenting with in SA."

He used the example of visa changes by home affairs over the past year that had far-reaching impacts on SA's tourism industry.

"You can see what that did to tourism in just one year. We just cannot afford to be playing around with policy that can have negative consequences, not just for the industry but for all of SA. Because telecommunications and IT are really a key foundation that enables this economy."

MTN says it is encouraged by the strides the regulator has made to finalise the process of spectrum allocation. However, it continues to push for a speeding up of that process to improve customer experience.

This as the rapid adoption of smart devices has substantially increased traffic on networks, and "has rendered access to spectrum more urgent", said Nyati.

Lack of high-demand radio spectrum has compelled MTN to re-farm existing spectrum to cater to the pent-up demand for digital services, which operators cannot continue to meet without the allocation of the high-demand spectrum.

"The re-farming of existing spectrum to cater for LTE technology is an interim measure, as access to the high demand spectrum is the prerequisite for the provision of high performance networks and seamless network experience."

Nyati said MTN has prioritised transforming customer experience and has embarked on an aggressive network rollout in the past year. This saw the operator increasing spend by 92.9% last year and adding 966 2G sites, 1 593 largely co-located 3G sites and 3 148 LTE sites to its network.

The company plans to invest R12 billion in its network in the next year to improve voice, data and fixed broadband for all customers.

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