Ericsson lines up partners for Transtel project

Ericsson South Africa has named five black empowerment companies as its partners for the upgrading and modernisation of Transtel`s countrywide telecoms network.

Jan Embro, MD of Ericsson South Africa, says: "Our list of partners for this project represent a healthy spread of established national players and emerging regional companies. All of the companies are black-owned and managed and boast deep skills in the telecoms space.

"Transtel has emphasised that sharing of knowledge and experience between its primary network supplier and a range of empowerment companies is a major objective of this project. We`re investing heavily in skills development and training for staff at Transtel and our partners in line with the strategy we have adopted across Africa."

The companies Ericsson has selected as its partners for the project are:

- Plessey, a company jointly owned by Worldwide Africa Investment Holdings (51%) and London Stock Exchange-listed Dimension Data Holdings (49%);

- Mergent, a joint venture between CIE Group and an empowerment group, Ubambo Investment Holdings;

- Thamela Technologies, a company established in 1998 by a team of black engineers;

- IKWEZI Telecommunications, a subsidiary of the black owned and managed IKWEZI Group; and

- Ingoma, a black-owned and managed telecoms specialist.

Ingoma`s relationship with Ericsson stretches back to 1998. In the past three years, Ingoma has worked on the implementation of Mini-Link and GSM networks at a number of major operators in SA and Botswana.

Thozamile Botha, executive chairman of Ikwezi, says the Transtel project is the first time that his company will work with Ericsson. "This deal has opened up a wide range of new business opportunities for Ikwezi. We expect to work closely with Ericsson in Africa in the coming years," says Botha.

Loren Braithwaite, MD of Mergent Technologies, says: "This project will allow us to work on cutting-edge Ericsson technology. We believe the Transtel deal has provided a good opportunity for black-owned companies to build their skills up."

Sean Liebenberg, at Plessey, says: "We`ve been working with Ericsson for the past 15 months, and view this contract as the ideal way to strengthen our ties. As Ericsson is the incumbent network supplier to MTN, one of our major customers, we see as one of our key vendor relationships.

"We`ve worked closely with MTN on the roll-out of its infrastructure in countries such as Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, SA and Swaziland."

Thamela Technologies first entered into its partnership with Ericsson nearly three years ago, and has worked with the network equipment supplier on projects at Telkom in SA and at network operators in Cameroon and Nigeria.

Transtel started upgrading its infrastructure some time ago, including a rollout of a countrywide fibre-optic network, in anticipation of its participation in SA`s second fixed-line network operator (SNO). Under the Telecommunications Amendment Bill, Transtel and ESI-TEL, a division of Eskom Enterprises, will both participate in the SNO. The two have been working closely for some time on the integration of existing networks, and new infrastructure.

Ericsson will work with Transtel on the creation of a "next generation" telecommunications network (NGN) operating over the fibre network. Once Ericsson and Transtel have finalised the details of the network design, Ericsson will work together with its partners on implementing the entire network.