CASE STUDY
What IT / Digital Transformation projects has Cell C implemented in the last 12 months in South Africa ?
How is Cell C preparing for 5G rollout when ICASA auctions 5G spectrum later this year ?
There has been a tremendous amount of work internally that the customer at the moment will not be able to see . We are putting in place the building blocks to build the digital ecosystem aligned with Cell C evolving into a technology business . The work happening behind-thescenes includes getting the right resources to build the digital ecosystem and skills development to enable the team to grow and have the right and necessary skills to work in a technology business . The customers should be able to see the fruits of our labour in the next twelve months . We also have automation projects being executed internally in support of the business , which again are not visible to customers but rather projects that allow us to service both internal and external customers better . We have been changing our world , so we can change our customers ’ lives by giving them a superior customer experience .
The role of a CTO has evolved over the years with more C-level and business line executives getting involved in making IT decisions and formulating the overall technology strategy . How hard or easy is it for you to get the correct support and buy-in from your peers at Cell C ?
I am of the belief that there needs to be a collaborative approach within the business to succeed based on the complexity of the business model and the digital age we live in today . We cannot work in silos because that hinders one to see any blind spots , therefore , a collaborative approach allows the business executives to identify gaps and offer input that are aligned with the business strategy and ensure objectives are met . With the direction Cell C is moving in at the moment , there is collaboration in the technology strategy and more and more executives are interested in what needs to happen and offering suggestions and or ideas . Internal partnerships are just as critical , as our external ones , to our success .
WE ARE LOOKING AT MIGRATING MORE BUSINESS OPERATIONS TO THE CLOUD AS PART OF OUR TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY .
Cell C is becoming the biggest aggregator of network capacity and we are using our own spectrum to carry traffic through access to a virtualised radio access network ( RAN ) provisioned by our network infrastructure partner . We are bidding for spectrum later this year and are already in discussions with our roaming partners and close to the implementation of 5G services for our customers .
Which telecoms equipment vendors is Cell C South Africa working with to roll-out its 5G network ?
As mentioned earlier , we are leveraging off our roaming partners for the access component of the telecoms value chain . Huawei is our incumbent technology partner on our core and billing systems .
Talk us through what the rollout of 5G will mean for Cell C customers and what sort of services and experiences can they expect from your company that they are currently not getting ?
As an industry , we need to be cautious in creating an expectation that a 5G network will be rolled out as quickly as 4G and 3G networks because the frequencies used in 5G is much higher , which means it doesn ’ t reach as far . What I mean by that is , in order to cover the same area as 3G and 4G networks , there will need to be many more 5G sites to cover the same geographical area .
The first use case for 5G would be fixed wireless access service for customers – areas where there isn ’ t a fibre footprint the solution would be to deploy 5G fixed wire access . Another use case , which is in the future , we will see automation in various industries with delicate remote procedures made possible due to the low latency of 5G . Internet of Things ( IoT ) technologies will also become more prevalent due to the ability of 5G to support a lot more connections and devices at a given point in time .
What impact will the rollout of 5G networks across South Africa have on Cell C ’ s Digital Transformation journey ?
We need to always bring it back to the customer by identifying a challenge they face and providing the right solution . 5G will provide more people access to highspeed Internet , which enable the execution of digital activities such as gaming , virtual reality and the high bandwidth combined with low latency has the potential for remote healthcare services . Fibre access in remote areas is expensive in terms of infrastructure and difficult to justify the investment commercially , if leveraged
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