MTN ploughs money into capacity

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 15 May 2009

MTN's R2 billion national long-distance fibre network project, in conjunction with Neotel, gets under way this month.

Speaking at MTN's media forum, held yesterday, the company's CTO Sameer Dave said the Durban-Johannesburg leg of the national fibre roll-out has started and will be completed by 2010. The company is focusing on this route first, because of the proximity to the Seacom landing point in Mtunzini.

Dave says the companies have also started to survey the second phase of the national route, between Cape Town and Johannesburg. Alongside phase one completion, MTN expects to connect to Seacom and Eassy by September next year.

The national fibre project was announced by MTN and Neotel in January, with both companies supplying ambitious timelines for the 5 000km local capacity project. It is expected to be complete in two years.

The total cost of the project between the two companies is expected to reach anywhere between R1.5 billion and R2 billion. The first spade in the ground for the project is two months late, however, MTN is confident it will be completed within the timeframe stipulated by the operators.

MTN also gets to fulfil its long-term strategy of self-provision, which Tim Lowry, MTN SA MD, explains is the primary reason for the network. “We are paying almost R1 billion per year to Telkom for our transmission. We will reduce that bill by R200 million by 2010 and up to R300 million by 2012.”

Meanwhile, MTN has also completed 145km of its Gauteng fibre roll-out, which the company says has cost around R145 million to date. According to Dave, the Gauteng project will have full light-up by September this year.

In terms of base-station capacity, the company is expecting to dramatically increase its presence, with a total investment for this year marked at R1.4 billion. This will include 280 new 2G sites and 450 new 3G sites. Dave says 70 of these have already been installed, and MTN has Edge coverage in around 78% of SA.

Total investment to the network will come in at R6 billion, the company says.

For detailed view of the national fibre route, click here.