DST calls on MTN

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 25 Jul 2008

MTN Business has been contracted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to provide all of its business voice and data services.

While the company will not disclose the value of the deal, MTN's national sales manager for government, Muzi Dlamini, says winning the tender is a coup for MTN.

"The DST is a small department relative to other government departments. The monetary value of the deal is, therefore, not that significant." However, winning the DST tender is symbolic of a significant "tipping point" for MTN's strategy targeting government, he says. "The DST has set the direction, and we are confident that other departments will follow."

MTN's department focussing on garnering government business has been in place for three years, and Dlamini says he is pleased it is now starting to "bear fruit".

The company will provide all the voice and data services for the DST, as well as a reverse billed APN (access point node or gateway for GPRS traffic). "We will be expanding applicable technologies as we come to better understand the additional customer requirements."

Along with 3G-enabled handsets, MTN will install a BlackBerry enterprise server and an online billing management tool, called Active.

Other deals

MTN Business also has a contract with the State IT Agency (SITA) to offer mobile and network solutions to various government departments. The product deployed is called MOBiGOV.

The partnership agreement was signed at SITA's annual GovTech event last year. The aim of the SITA project was to encourage government departments to increase their uptake and usage of ICTs, in order to improve service delivery.

"SITA is mandated to assist government to be more productive in the ICT arena. Providing them with the MOBiGOV product gives SITA an effective tool with which to deliver on its mandate - a solution to offer to all government departments which enables them to be connected to their offices, 24/7, while they are on the go," said Buckley McGrath, executive of MTN business at the time.

Dlamini says the combination of the SITA and DST contracts shows government to be more comfortable with MTN solutions.