Since its inception in South Africa in 1994, MTN has grown into a multinational telecommunications player with operations in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East.
MTN is a leading emerging markets operator, offering an integrated suite of communications products and services to its 231 million customers. This includes traditional and mobile voice and data, digital and mobile financial services, as well as enterprise services. The company invests significantly in advanced communication infrastructure, with capital expenditure of R25,4 billion for the past finacial year.The talent of its more than 22 000 employees, combine to deliver to its customers the new digital world it envisions, brightening lives through innovative products and dedication to providing an enhanced customer experience.
MTN South Africa forms an integral part of this global communications partner and world-class cellular network, enjoying around 37% of the market share in the country. In 2011, MTN rolled out the largest network infrastructure development project in the history of the company, with the effect of increasing its 2G network coverage to accommodate 98.6% of the country’s population. MTN South Africa’s EDGE and 3G sites also afford 65% of the population better call and data connectivity. Newly appointed MTN SA CEO Mteto Nyati summarises the group’s operations and the daring approach behind them as such: “The Group currently operates in 22 countries, and within that are territories where other people have not wanted to go and invest – Nigeria, Iran, Syria, for example – and these are now paying off. We are a company that is not afraid to be bold, but at the same time one with the ability to expertly manage these risks and execute well on the things we choose to pursue.”
Its dedication to bringing customers a faultless internet connectivity experience has seen MTN invest substantially in submarine cables designed to improve broadband capacity. It is also the biggest investor in the West Africa Cable System that links South Africa and its west coast to Europe, while MTN has invested heavily too in the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System, to further improve network redundancy. With MTN SA now set to establish itself at the very forefront of the market, Nyati took us through the early stages of his newly acquired position. “It has been a very busy four weeks, a time in which communication has been key,” he explains. “First of all, this has meant listening to our customers, both in the consumer and enterprise brackets, but also talking to our employees and addressing some of their concerns, and finally with our partners. This has been very enlightening in terms of gauging where we are, and what kind of company we can go on to be.”
Among his first successes was bringing a satisfactory end to the protracted strike action which had affected the company for some time leading up to his appointment. “When I took on the role one of the biggest challenges facing MTN South Africa was the industrial action which had been running for two months already. I felt that we needed to solve this particular challenge quickly, and we achieved that. With these things sometimes the challenge is that we take positions, and then hold onto them and refuse to engage. Whereas in fact, we should always attempt to engage, so the first thing we decided to do when I joined was open a channel of communication with the unions. It became clear to both parties that an end was desirable, and we thus put together the necessary conditions and terms which were, in fact, in line with what we had proposed at the beginning of the strike, meaning that there was no negative impact financially. Employee engagement is one of my main priorities to avoid anything similar moving forward.”
Now firmly established in his new role as CEO, Nyati is unequivocal in his aim to position MTN South Africa as number one in the country. In his own words, “as MTN today, we are sitting at number two and we have been number two since inception. My sense is that we cannot sit and be comfortable in the number two spot, we must have bigger aspirations than that. We need to aspire for better things as a company and one of those things is to become the best mobile operator within the African continent, and there is absolutely nothing to stop us achieving this. There are however certain things which need to be done in order for this to be the case.”
“Firstly,” he continues, “the level at which we are investing in our network needs to be at the same level as or better than the competition. From the point of view of network coverage, the speeds or throughput of our network and equally of availability, these are all incredibly important. Also key here is that overall we feel that other players in the market have decided to position themselves as number one either in value, or lower down the rankings, price. We are going to focus on being the company that delivers superior customer service – this will be the thing driving us to gain market share, and the changes will be felt immediately.”
This will be the result of huge investment on the part of the company, as Nyati details. “This year alone we are investing close to $1 billion. That, in my view, will help to set us apart from a network coverage standpoint.” This investment will be focused solely on South Africa, and primarily enabling data,“which is fuelling our growth. We need to make sure our network can handle LTE as we upgrade our 2G and 3G sites. We have just invested in a new Machine to Machine platform which enables us to offer what we call ‘Internet of Things’, so again it is critical for us to have a quality network as we roll out these kinds of solutions.”
Nyati has clear visions for the development of MTN SA and its planned rise to top player in the market.“Going forward I would like to ensure that this business consistently delivers growth, and I intend to shift resources into areas I believe will do this. The two primary areas are of course the enterprise and digital businesses –areas like mobile money and e-commerce, where people’s needs are increasingly growing complex and which we need to adapt to deliver, these will drive us forward.”
On the part of mobile operators there are actions which can be taken to drive this technological penetration. “One of these things is device affordability. This is preventing people from accessing this technology, not a lack of desire, and so when we see these devices coming from China at less than $100, that is the kind of trend that will enable many people on this continent to move toward smartphone usage. In South Africa we’re looking at maybe 25% smartphone penetration so we still have a long way to go, while across the continent this percentage is even lower. This kind of device will allow us to connect a significant number of people, and change the lives of many citizens.”
MTN South Africa has committed significantly to helping create opportunities for South Africans and develop the economy across the country. “As a company we feel strongly that education, in particular for our youth, is key to allow this country to be globally competitive,” states Nyati.“We have set up the MTN Foundation, whose biggest focus is on providing connectivity at schools and helping teachers to use ICT as a tool in teaching children and making learning exciting. We are able to provide support and connectivity to over 450 schools per annum, and the light that we bring to them impacts hundreds and hundreds of learners and allows them to connect with the rest of the world through our foundation.”
The extent of MTN’s footprint globally is among the most notable aspects providing its foundations for future growth. “If you look at most of the companies in our market in South Africa, most of them have a strategy geared toward expansion beyond South Africa. This takes them into areas with which they are unfamiliar, and they thus need partners to guide them in these territories. Given our footprint, we have become a natural partner to them – whether a company in Nigeria wants to expand down south, or from South Africa looking geographically up north, we have made huge investment in more than 45 data centres across the continent with a MPLS network connecting them. The infrastructure that we have put in place, the cloud services that we have invested in, this all combines to make us the natural partner to these companies.”