Cell C targets LTE with R2.2 billion injection
Cell C says R2.2 billion has been budgeted for continued investment into the operator in the 2015 financial year.
“This capital budget will also support the company’s LTE strategy, which will be announced in due course,” the mobile operator said in a statement on Tuesday (24 February).
Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos hinted at a possible commercial launch of Long Term Evolution (LTE) for the group at the MyBroadband 2014 conference in September.
The group talked up its LTE plans as far back as 2012, and said that it would have 1,000 sites ready by the end of 2013, having run a number of trials in big cities including Joburg and Cape Town.
However, it said it would not roll out LTE on a national scale until there was more clarity regarding government’s broadband plans.
On Tuesday, the group said it grew revenue by 16% year-on-year in announcing results for the financial year ended December 2014.
“Both operationally and financially, we have seen some excellent growth in key areas, despite the lack of regulatory support. We have worked hard to grow both our customer base and drive efficiencies to bring us to the highlights of the 2014 results,” said Dos Santos.
Cell C said it closed the year with 19.6 million customers, which translated to a year-on-year increase of 44%. Reflected in this figure is the 45% increase in prepaid subscribers and a 29% increase in the number of customers purchasing data.
“While we saw quite a large increase in the number of data users, the actual volumes of data usage on the network increased by 106% and contributed to a data revenue growth of 76%. We are exceptionally pleased with the results in this space and we will continue to drive value-based products to our customers,” said Dos Santos.
Supported by shareholder investment, the company continued network expansion and had a total of 4,524 sites on air by end December 2014.
The operator said that the Network Operations team has completed an intensive network project in the Gauteng region, including the harmonisation of it’s network equipment on 1,215 base-stations in the region, as well as the replacement of out-dated technology on some of these sites.
“Additionally, network traffic consolidation and stability enhancements have proven to show exceptional customer feedback on quality,” it said.
Cell C added that it continues with similar projects in other metro regions in 2015 to sustain the stability, quality and modernisation drive across the country.
“We are very pleased with the progress on our network, and in the middle of February this year, we turned off roaming in the Tembisa area where we have built excellent coverage. I am pleased to report that the project went off without a hitch and two other phases of this project will happen throughout the year,” said Dos Santos.
“The company has already provided notice to our roaming partner to turn off roaming in the Soshanguve, Pretoria North and Mamelodi regions in April and the Pretoria West, Midrand and Diepsloot regions in May.”
Bloomberg reported last week that Cell C is working with Goldman Sachs to explore its options in SA, including a possible sale.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said the possible sale would be to “domestic competitors”.
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