Government should provide the vision to get SA's ICT sector on track to make the country globally competitive, as industry needs something by which to measure itself, says Karel Pienaar, MTN SA MD.
“I think that we, as a country, have lost our way somewhat. We have slipped behind many of our competing countries in terms of several rankings on various ICT indices. We need government to help revitalise a 2020 vision,” he told ITWeb after speaking at the Africa Com conference in Cape Town today.
Communications minister Roy Padayachie is expected at the conference later today to make his first public appearance since his appointment.
“I know the minister well and dealt with him when he was deputy minister of communications two years ago. I expect the minister to call for greater public-private partnerships. This would be a good thing. All that government has to do is set a long-term vision going forward until 2020 and industry will do most of the rest,” Pienaar said.
Future upgraded
Pienaar said MTN's group goal is continuous long-term investment in its infrastructure, including upgrading its cellular network and laying fibre-optic cables.
He pointed out that the MTN Group delivered a sound operational performance for the first six months of this year. It is confident it will continue to enjoy high growth prospects through organic and acquisitive expansion in Africa and other emerging markets, he added.
“While mobile voice is currently the dominant revenue driver and brings in more than 92% of revenue, the group is well positioned to capitalise on future growth from evolving voice, data and other service requirements.”
Revenue from data is still small at 1.5% to 2% of total revenue, but he expects a “hockey stick” take off once the market begins to mature.
“That is one of the reasons why we are investing in cable. We have stakes in two of the offshore cables (Eassy on the East Coast and the West African Cable System). Once the international and domestic long distance bottlenecks are cleared, then we will see massive data growth.”
Pienaar said further investment will be made into the development of local fibre rings and a national fibre network. This, along with its investment in the submarine cables, will position MTN favourably to capitalise on the next growth spurt in the mobile communications space, he explained.
Green moves
He also pointed to MTN Group's investment in alternative energy technologies, such as the July unveiling of its methane tri-generation power plant.
Pienaar announced MTN's money transfer system MobileMoney had signed a commercial agreement with global payment organisation Western Union for a cross-border mobile money transfer service. The service will first become operational in Uganda.
“Once introduced to the market, the service will allow MTN customers to send and receive Western Union money transfer transactions via their MTN MobileMoney accounts.”
Pienaar touched on MTN's future, with the emphasis on its ability to expand into the corporate market with a converged offering.
“Expansion into the fixed-line market to grow the business into corporate data and IT services is only possible through a combination of mobile, data, fixed voice and other services. Investing in fibre networks becomes the enabler to tap into this largely untapped African B2B data, Internet and ICT growth market.”
Transition to ICT
Pienaar said the next growth stage opportunities MTN has identified for implementation in the short-, medium- and long-term will require partnerships with market regulators.
These include: the continued growth of organic mobile voice subscribers; improved accessibility to mobile broadband, data and services; value chain expansion driven by convergence predominantly in the corporate fixed voice market; and a focus on driving a sustainable business through the reduction in its carbon footprint.
Pienaar noted that MTN will not be described as a mobile network operator within the next five to 10 years.
“We will be an ICT company. Many IT companies are already coming to us as they need an operator to add value to their clients and so need a partner.”
Related story:
MTN SA grows subscribers by 4%
Share