MTN South Africa says that it plans to build its own fibre backbone to reduce its operational costs and cut its reliance on the increasingly unreliable landline operator, Telkom SA. With a expenditure of some R1.4 billion (US$185 million) on a 5000km fibre optic cable network in major metropolitan areas, the company aims to save some R6.3 billion (US$835 million) in operational costs over the next ten years.

 The company has earmarked a total of R7 billion (US$928 million) on CAPEX for this year.

MTN's Chief Technical Officer Sammer Dave, said that the build out was partly cost savings but also due to quality problems with the dominant landline operator, Telkom SA. He also suggested that the firm is open to partnering with other telcos and hopes to make announcements within the next couple of months.

The fibre optic rollout is expected to be completed before the country hosts the 2010 soccer World Cup.

Vodacom also announced plans to build its own fibre network last year. Two of Vodacom’s fibre rings in Johannesburg and Pretoria recently went live and now carry network traffic.

Source:cellular-news