South African mobile service provider MTN has revealed an aggressive upgrade of its infrastructure, ahead of an anticipated boom in data services in the local and African markets.
MTN Network Solutions CEO Mike Brierley says the group is expecting 100% growth in subscribers to data services next year and is also preparing for the launch of WiMax in SA.
He would not reveal how much MTN will spend on the upgrade, but says the group has sourced all its equipment from Juniper Networks. A separate announcement regarding this is expected soon.
MTN has already completed its upgrade in Johannesburg, and expects its assets in Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth to be upgraded within the next two months.
Brierley says business is "vibrant", driven by a high demand for ADSL, which MTN offers in the form of 3G and HSDPA products.
He adds MTN has seen a large focus on mobile data in the corporate space. "We are starting to offer more application services and forming partnerships with other application developers.
"We want to combine application services and the network into a solution, and I believe we have been very successful in that particular area."
African strategy
Brierley says MTN's bigger strategy is to increase its data space offerings across Africa, with the intention of leveraging available assets to offer converged services across the board.
"We have bought some businesses in Africa [such as data service providers and Internet service providers]. In those countries we, in most cases, own the telecommunications infrastructure and fibre."
He adds: "MTN is increasing the number of its African operations, as well as upgrading its data capabilities. We are working with Cameroon, Uganda and Rwanda."
MTN intends to build virtual private networks across the continent to deliver services to clients. "The services will not be limited to just voice; we plan to offer data, as well as voice over Internet Protocol."
Brierley says MTN has seen growth of 200% in data services traffic this year.
"Keeping up with infrastructure is not so simple; you have to physically roll it out, get the upgrades and increase the capacity. Although MTN is able to meet the demands of continuous infrastructure upgrades, keeping up with such rapid growth takes much thought and engineering. It does get very taxing."