The nature and extent of the relentless change in telecommunications makes it a domain of high specialisation - not just technologically, but also at a business and regulatory level.
However, because of the breadth and depth of skills needed to understand the full spectrum of telecoms options and the ramifications of these for customers` current and future business models, very few service providers have an end-to-end view of which technologies are most appropriate in which circumstances. Even fewer are able to implement the full range of products and services needed to underpin any given solution.
Why? Because delivering an end-to-end service requires genuine depth of expertise, best-of-breed equipment, a next-generation service provider, and crucially, the ability to build the necessary infrastructure, says Howard Earley, COO of Plessey.
In fact, without the infrastructure, nothing else is possible. The fibre-optic cable for transmission backbone and metro networks has to be laid and microwave towers and masts have to be erected - all of which involve one or more elements of civil works, city planning and permissions, power and cooling installations and management, and physical security.
These, in turn, are impacted by terrain, weather, local and international regulations, political environments, and variables in telecommunications equipment. An infrastructure provider, therefore, needs an unusual combination of knowledge and capability that covers everything from civil engineering and geology to the law and information technology.
"In order to provide the most appropriate solution, an infrastructure provider needs to understand the full communications value chain. By providing a comprehensive, solution ourselves, we enable everyone else in the chain to add to the coherence of the overall solution for an individual customer or a country."
Plessey has played this kind of integrative role in the communications continuum for more than three decades. Today, it is even better positioned to provide a broad, modular range of telecommunications solutions that keep pace with and can be very precisely mapped to the new opportunities opening up to customers.
"We have the advantage of being able to call, where relevant, on the global consulting and solutions design experience and capability of our parent company, Dimension Data, and also on the carrier, connectivity, and communications specialisations within Internet Solutions," Earley says.
"In addition, NTT is Dimension Data`s parent. So, we can bring NTT`s international best practice and case studies to bear on the solutions we offer within Africa."
Plessey`s role in the development of connectivity infrastructure on the continent is mission critical in light of the landing of the four submarine cables bringing additional bandwidth to Africa.
"Without terrestrial fibre backbones connecting major cities to the undersea cables, there will still be too many bottlenecks for the real benefits of the increased bandwidth to be felt," Earley says.
"So, Plessey and Dimension Data are being commissioned to, respectively, project-manage the laying of fibre and provide the equipment to light up the fibre. We`re also jointly managing the overall infrastructure."
Earley expects that regulatory changes will accelerate the African connectivity boom. "New players will enter the market and existing players will want to deliver services to new areas. Everyone will be introducing entirely new services.
"Cobbling together different solutions from multiple providers will slow time to market. Organisations will look for one provider that can take all their telecoms challenges off their hands."
Customers will also want to take environmental custodianship for granted. "Dealing with the environment is what we do, anyway, and we`ve learned over the years how to do it optimally," Earley says.
"Overall, therefore, all our experience, relationships, and current capabilities are coalescing at exactly the right time for us to be able to remove the obstacles to Africa`s connectivity. And, because we have direct representation in the countries in which we operate and we sub-contract aspects of our work to accredited partners, we`re able to remove those obstacles while enabling economic benefit and transfer of skills wherever we touch communities."
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Plessey
Plessey is Africa`s telecommunications infrastructure provider of choice. With more than three decades of providing both fixed and wireless turnkey telecommunications infrastructure solutions, its recent track record includes laying 7 500 kilometres of fibre-optic cables across the continent, building mobile network base transceiver stations and wireless local loop systems at more than 8 000 sites, and maintaining not only the cable linking the SEACOM submarine cable to Johannesburg, South Africa, but also the regeneration sites along that cable.
Committed to enabling African businesses and people reach their full potential, Plessey has established in-country offices in order to make its end-to-end design, build, operate, manage, and maintain services available on the ground. Plessey is the telecommunications infrastructure delivery arm of Dimension Data.
For more information, please see www.plessey.co.za.
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