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South Africa’s market has reached the “perfect” point of maturity to embrace open access as a catalyst for growth, Teraco sales head Sven Blom said on Wednesday.
The connection of all players in a technology-neutral framework allowed for innovation, low-cost end-user services, the opening up of the market for new, smaller entrants and limited dominant market positions, leading to better business and enhanced value for end-users.
An open-access model also enabled the quicker deployment of new technologies, with the cost savings emerging from infrastructure-sharing, allowing for the reallocation of competencies and capital to the development of core business.
It was expected that passive infrastructure-sharing could potentially lead to 15% to 30% overall cost savings, with savings of around 60% on yearly site capital expenditure.
“This is especially the key to success in a competitive and cost conscious market,” he said.
“It is just not viable for one company to do it all on their own. The cost is just too big to bear, so with open-access you gain value with increased affordability, more flexibility, much greater agility and, most importantly, choice,” added CMC Networks MD Martin Springer.
This emerged as latest open-access WiFi infrastructure provider Vast Networks this week made its debut on the market as it introduced services allowing customers to provide secure, high-quality, high-speed bandwidth to end-users.
The new player’s portfolio of integrated on-the-go WiFi services had already gone live at more than 2 000 sites, including at malls, hotels, major transport hubs, hospitals, restaurants and entertainment venues.
Operating on a fully redundant 100-Mb/s-plus fibre-optic backbone, Vast aimed to promote access to “information, markets, people and opportunities” through affordable WiFi offerings, Vast CEO Grant Marais said.
The company combined the WiFi assets of MWEB and Internet Solutions to unlock the potential of connectivity’s role in driving forward South Africa’s economy.