JOHANNESBURG, November 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --
Plessey(http://www.plessey.co.za/), the wholly-owned Dimension Data
( http://www.dimensiondata.com/) subsidiary, today announced the
launch of its operator-neutral Operation and Management (O&M)
Services which will be made available to wireless and cable network
operators across the African continent.
This move will see Plessey assume the role of physical
infrastructure developer, as well as provide a first class managed
infrastructure service on which any operator can build their
services.
Plessey specialises in the provision of passive infrastructure
for service providers and GSM operators in Africa on a non-shared, shared or
multi-tenanted full maintenance lease basis.
Howard Earley, Plessey CEO says,
"Plessey has over 50 years' experience in providing Radio Base
Station (RBS) site-build and outside plant fibre infrastructure
throughout Africa. We have
excellent relationships with key operators on the ground, and have
for some years been providing several components of managed service
in South Africa and East Africa. Extending our offering to include
a broader value stack of managed infrastructure service to
established, emerging, and embryonic Towercos and network service
providers is the next logical step for Plessey."
He explains: "In the past, network operators invested in
infrastructure either for their own and exclusive use, or
participated to industry sharing initiatives. Today, operators are
under increased pressure to reduce their operating costs and
capital expenditure. This, coupled with a decreasing EBITDA makes
them open to outsourcing the management of their towers to third
parties. Sharing a common infrastructure is entirely carrier
neutral and does not differentiate between users, and the real
benefits to operators are compelling."
Earley says Plessey's O&M Services model also aligns with
parent company Dimension Data's goal to become a world leading
services-led organisation. "There appears to be deep support for
the shared infrastructure model by a number of regulatory bodies
throughout Africa," he
explains.
According to a study by the TMT advisory firm Delta Partners,
there are 200,000 towers in the Middle
East and Africa. Delta
expects the demand for towers in MEA to increase by 50% over the
next five years, driven by factors such as the availability of
undersea cable networks, terrestrial fibre networks, broadband
wireless technologies and subscriber growth. Circa US$8.0 billion in cumulative tower related CAPEX
could be saved if operators were to share towers (The Delta
Perspective, April 2009).
For further information contact Howard
Earley, Tel: +27-11-6551603, howard.earley@plessey.co.za