MTN South Africa will open its fibre-to-the-home network to independent internet service providers (ISPs), thereby allowing them to provide value-added services to their customers via MTN’s wholesale broadband fiber connection division.
ISPs that sign a wholesale service agreement with MTN will be able to lease a fibre broadband connection from the optical network terminal within the home, linking to a network-to-network interface (NNI), established with MTN in any Teraco data centre.
The ISPs will then provide the fibre connectivity, internet and other value-added services to their customers via MTN’s wholesale broadband fibre connection.
“Open access networks remain one of the critical pillars of our converged strategy,” said John Lewis, chief officer for managed network services in a statement.
“We believe that open access networks will give customers the flexibility to utilise the service provider of their choice within our fibre footprint.”
“This will also stimulate competition amongst service providers, lower the costs for subscribers, and reduce the barriers of entry to new service providers entering the market. We believe that this will bode well for our subscribers, while giving impetus to our vision of ushering in a bold, new digital world.”
According to the statement, the recently acquired Smart Village will also be made available on the same open access terms and conditions, once the access network upgrade and the integration into MTN’s core network has been completed.
MTN Group is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, JSE with Vodacom and Telkom as it’s rival on the same exchange.
MTN Group, formerly M-Cell, is a South Africa-based multinational mobile telecommunications company, operating in many African, European and Asian countries. Its head office is in Johannesburg. As of 30 June 2016, MTN recorded 232,6 million subscribers across its operations. Although MTN operates in over 20 countries, One-third of its revenues come from Nigeria, where it holds about 35% market share.
