MTN SA is building private networks for big companies in the mining and ports industries to offer dedicated capacity and guaranteed coverage as it ramps up its superfast 5G network rollout.
The licensing of the radio frequency spectrum is making it increasingly possible for mobile network operators to build private networks to boost communication for companies that require high-volume data transmission.
MTN has signed 14 companies. Its 5G network will give clients the ability to control their own communication network. It will also improve internet speeds and security and provide uninterrupted connectivity.
MTN SA CEO Charles Molapisi said this week that “this is an exciting area for us. We are far ahead of many in terms of private network on the 5G side. We see this as a huge growth area.”
Molapisi, who became CEO in January, said with MTN’s 5G network, enterprises will not only get basic voice and data services, but these will be extended to, among other things, cloud computing, unified communication — integration of communication services — cybersecurity and machine-to-machine communications.
“It’s connectivity first; then we put [on] layers of other services. Any form of communication will be deployed. Globally, companies are moving aggressively into this,” he said.
Worldwide private networks are also gaining momentum, especially in manufacturing industries. For example, Nokia is deploying a private 5G stand-alone wireless network for Volkswagen’s main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Locally, Liquid Intelligent Technologies is also targeting companies operating in industries such as manufacturing and mining with its 5G. It says the main aim is to help companies automate their operations.
“We always say 5G is an innovation platform. It is the first technology that is more services based. Hence companies in industries like mines are excited. Hence the spectrum becomes critical,” said Molapisi.
MTN will bid for more spectrum licensing when the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) opens the bidding process for the next phase.
Last month Icasa published an information memorandum to solicit views from interested companies regarding the spectrum bands to be considered during the second phase of the licensing process.
Companies have until tomorrow to submit responses.
Icasa said the second phase will provide additional capacity to licensees to meet the continuous demand for capacity growth in mobile services.
In March, Icasa held the first spectrum auction that raised as much as R14.4bn.
We always say 5G is an innovation platform. It is the first technology that is more services based. Hence companies in industries like mines are excited. Hence the spectrum becomes critical
Molapisi said MTN will participate in the second phase because the spectrum it has is not “sufficient beyond 2025”.
“If you look at the expected growth of data, we need to secure more,” he said.
MTN has 19% of the country’s population covered by its 5G network and is aggressively growing that. Molapisi believes that an operator of the future will not be a telecom company but a technology company that builds platforms that will enable a multitude of digital services including fintech.
“Once you have a robust network, any service can be added on to [it],” said Molapisi.
MTN is also opening its network systems for other companies that do not own infrastructure but want to provide data and voice services, which are referred to as mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).
One of the spectrum licence conditions is that network operators must have three MVNOs. Cell C’s prepaid customers are on MTN’s network.
“We are growing that part of the business quite significantly. We are building an MVNO platform as a service,” he said.
According to Molapisi, if a company wants to be a regional MVNO, MTN will be able to provide access to its systems and “all they will worry about is the go-to market capabilities”.
“It’s a big business growth. That’s where we see our role as MTN being an MVNO enabler, to bring more players to promote competition. We believe that we need to take out the {infrastructure] costs [for MVNOs}.
“We have a huge pipeline of MVNOs who want to come on board. We are open for business when it comes to MVNO. We will add far more than three,’ he said.
Other examples of MVNOs include FNB Connect and Mr Price Mobile.
MTN SA is also focusing on aggressively increasing its fibre network footprint.
MTN Group’s plan to is to buy Telkom and, if successful, this could help accelerate these plans. Its subsidiary Supersonic has more than 60,000 fibre to the home customers, but MTN SA aims to reach one million. However, Molapisi declined to say by when the company wanted to reach this target.
Competition in the fibre space has intensified in recent years.
Vodacom has merged its fibre network infrastructure with Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa to create one of the largest fibre network operators in SA.
Analysts have said that MTN is more interested in Telkom’s Openserve business, which operates an open access fibre network. Telkom’s fibre network passes more than 840,000 homes, with about 400,000 homes connected to its fibre.
“The [fibre to] home is where we are underindexed but we have big plans for that,” said Molapisi.
To reach households, Molapisi said that the company will use a number of fibre alternative technologies such as a fixed-LTE (long-term evolution) router, and the Tarana airfibre wireless network, which provides similar quality network and services as fibre.
“The battle for the home is important and fibre network rollout remains critical to us but we will be pragmatic with out capital deployment,” he said.
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