Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub says that, while Neotel’s spectrum would give it some breathing room, it would not solve the operator’s spectrum needs.<\/p>\n
Joosub was speaking at the 2014 MyBroadband Conference in Midrand on Tuesday (30 September), explaining how Neotel would benefit the group’s business.<\/p>\n
Vodacom and Neotel entered into exclusive discussions regarding a potential acquisition of 100% of the shares of Neotel by Vodacom, in September last year.<\/p>\n
The deal is valued at R7 billion, and is currently open for public comment as part of a competition commission process.<\/p>\n
The process is expected to be completed by the end of 2014 or early 2015, according to Joosub, though the Vodacom chief said he couldn’t rightly say.<\/p>\n
It was previously speculated that the main focus of the acquisition was for Vodacom to gain Neotel’s spectrum – much needed for the group’s next generation mobile networks.<\/p>\n
However, Joosub contested this, saying that the overall focus was more in-line with a capital investment strategy.<\/p>\n
“Fixed-line is a focus, and Neotel gives us fixed capability,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We can tuck Vodacom’s fixed-line business in, and keep it (Neotel) independent.”<\/p>\n
“Secondly, we will be acquiring a customer base – effectively capital investments; there’s also 16,000 kilometres of fibre.”<\/p>\n
“There is also spectrum…but even that doesn’t solve our spectrum needs, to be frank. But it does give us some breathing room.”<\/p>\n
Spectrum is a crucial part of Vodacom’s future plans, as next generation mobile broadband competition heats up.<\/p>\n
Telkom announced that it would be launching its 4G – LTE-Advanced – network in December 2014, with plans to roll out the service to 50 areas by March 2015.<\/p>\n
Last week (23 September) Vodacom performed a live demonstration of Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced technology on its cellular network at the Dome in Vodacom World.<\/p>\n
Vodacom CTO Andries Delport demonstrated mobiles speeds as high as 270Mbps running on the network, adding that group has upgraded equipment at every site across the country.<\/p>\n
This means that Vodacom is 4G ready across its entire network, Joosub noted.<\/p>\n
“We could switch on 4G tomorrow, if we had the spectrum,” he said.<\/p>\n
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