MTN, Africa's first global sponsor of the Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup, has spent close to R500 million upgrading its network in preparation for the soccer spectacular, which kicks off next week.
Speaking at the MTN media forum this morning, MTN CTO Sameer Dave explained that the company's investment only covers specifications for the World Cup, and not the entire network. The entire network investment for this year will be R4.1 billion.
Dave says that, over the past two years, MTN has implemented “super” coverage for the stadiums. Each of the stadiums will house around 22 base stations, have 38 cells or point-of-radio contacts, and will be fed by 6km of fibre.
In addition, each stadium will have 348 antennae, sending and receiving cellphone calls for the duration of the matches. MTN has also hired a team of engineers that will be present at the stadium to monitor the network during each match.
According to Dave, Cape Town International Airport, OR Tambo International and Durban's new International Airport have all been kitted out with the same technology.
In case of an emergency, Dave says MTN also has eight mobile base stations that can be deployed if network capacity becomes constrained.
For the fans
MTN chief marketing officer Serame Taukobong says international visitors will also be catered for, as the company is hiring dedicated staff to manage its help-desk. Staff will include translators of the various languages represented during the tournament.
The cellular company has also upgraded all of its base stations around all the 11 stadiums for data capacity of 21Mbps. There are currently about 120 towers that support that speed, which is a 3G evolution called HSPA+.
Another 1 300 sites across the country are now either running 7.2Mbps or 14.4Mbps, which is an upgrade to 3G. The company uses both its own fibre backhaul and Telkom infrastructure to link up these towers.
MTN handles about 220 terabytes of data across its network every month and expects the World Cup to add between 20 terabytes and 30 terabytes of additional data during the month-long games.
Legally compliant
According to Taukobong, international visitors will be able to purchase an MTN starter pack and comply with the SIM registration Act by registering at either the airport, or an MTN outlet using their passport as proof of identification.
Through MTN's partnership with Match, the company has already sold 600 000 starter packs as part of ticket sales. Taukobong says these SIMs will be activated at the airport and already comply with the registration laws as Match has captured the subscriber details.
MTN will also work with tourism operators to aid fans in activating their SIM cards.
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