Ericsson has brought its Engine road show to SA, and hopes to associate itself with broadband and third-generation services in the minds of operators.
[VIDEO]The immediate goal is to sell the concept to potential bidders for the second national operator (SNO), the Telkom competitor due to start operations next year. Telkom is also in its sights, with the possibility of a major network upgrade, as is Sentech and all the mobile operators.
Although looking to the future, Ericsson must still be smarting from the loss of the Cell C contract to Siemens, which will be responsible for building most of the third cellular network. The Cell C contract is worth more than $200 million in the first 18 months.
[VIDEO]Jan Embro, marketing director for Ericsson SA, says the company would have liked to have seen at least a part of the Cell C contract, but the timing was wrong and Ericsson could have won the race had the licence been issued earlier.
Ericsson is very interested in the SNO, he says. "There will be many parties involved and we are talking to a number of them."
Although Ericsson acknowledges that SA has a problem with basic telephone penetration, Embro does not believe that precludes the need for broadband services.
[VIDEO]"It is a matter of what you put priority on," he says.
Engine (a play on NGN or Next Generation Networks) is a multi-service network offering used to consolidate multiple networks, such as voice, data and mobile infrastructure, into a single network. It is based on a mixture of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and IP (Internet Protocol) technologies.
[VIDEO]The concept is being presented as a basis on which to provide sexy broadband services, such as mobile video conferencing and high quality streaming audio from handset to handset.
The cost of the solution can vary widely according to existing equipment and network size, but Engine is expected to be a major revenue driver for Ericsson worldwide.
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