Amith Maharaj, Senior Managing Executive of Telkom 8ta (Telkom’s mobile arm), outlines the South African operator’s network and service deployment strategy towards MBB, with an emphasis on LTE TDD using 2.3GHz spectrum.
According to Maharaj, the operator has opted to use LTE TDD technology based on the 2300MHz spectrum. “We have quite an abundant amount of spectrum and we believe that LTE TDD suits mobile broadband, because you can have asymmetric traffic distribution in terms of upload and download; you can decide how you want to configure the upload and download, as 80% of MBB traffic is on the downlink and 20% is on the uplink.” The operator plans to launch LTE service in April or May 2013 based on LTE TDD network overlaid on the 2G/3G network.
However, Maharaj recommends that peers adopt a marketing-centric approach instead of a technology-centric one. For Telkom to succeed in LTE, the first thing is to know the target market and come up with a unique positioning. “I think for LTE, the first thing is to know your target market and to understand what services you want to offer. So understanding where to position LTE in relation to 3G, 2G and ADSL is important. We should understand exactly where it fits in and then come up with unique pricing models that can enable quick uptake and experience.” He adds, “Absolutely Telkom has to differentiate itself on speed and quality of service as well, and from a marketing side, I think a unique proposition to get the market excited about LTE is important.”
“From a service prospective, Telkom is extremely strong in the enterprise market, so the enterprise market is the key market for us to focus on, not only for the corporate customers and corporate employees using the service for themselves, but also machine-to-machine applications, video streaming, security camera, etc. From a consumer perspective, fast and convenient broadband access is what we’re looking for, like I said, fixed-line penetration is extremely low in South Africa, so we’re hoping LTE can fill the gap to bring South Africa on par of the rest of the world for broadband.”
