With expectations that South Africa will lead in the roll-out of 5G in sub-Saharan Africa, Helios Towers has entered into a partnership with Vulatel to create an infrastructure platform, Helios Towers South Africa (HTSA). This would provide wireless and fixed-line open-access infrastructure in the country to subsequently be leased to other companies.
Helios has long considered entering into the South African market, having established a foothold in other African countries like Tanzania, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville. This is because, so far, South Africa is considered one of the more stable economies with an attractive opportunity due to its economic growth, population demographics and demand for advanced telecommunications services.
Commenting on the development, Kash Pandya, CEO of Helios Towers said the deal “delivers against our stated strategy of providing Mobile Network Operators with open-access infrastructure to meet the growing demands of their customers in Africa for fast, stable and available networks.”
More so, the emergence of 5G networks and accelerating broadband take-up presents a growth opportunity in African countries.
“Helios Towers also expects the South African market to lead the way on 5G rollout in sub-Saharan Africa, with a consumer and industrial business case for better coverage and enhanced connectivity delivered through the country’s current mobile network operators. HTSA expects to be able to support this by making investments in greenfield mobile tower infrastructure and the associated high-speed microwave and fibre-optic infrastructure that will enable Mobile Network Operators to meet their customers’ needs”, the company said in a statement.
Meeting the need for data services
A research report by World Wide Worx and Dark Fibre Africa in 2017 revealed that the Internet user population in South Africa passed the 20-million mark in 2016, reaching 21-million, and was expected to grow to at least 22.5-million in 2017. While the South African Internet user penetration stood at over 64% of the population in 2018.
Thus, the Helios-Vulatel partnership comes as a huge boost in addressing the country’s infrastructure gap in the telecommunications sector, with a huge demand for data services not being met caused largely by the deficit. Addressing this infrastructure gap in a key sector such as telecoms remains critical to enabling economic growth and driving productivity in any country.
“We are convinced this provides an unrivalled opportunity to build a leading open-access infrastructure platform to address the infrastructure gap in the country”, said Tlhabeli Ralebitso, Chairman and CEO of Vulatel.
Helios Towers is a leading independent telecommunications tower infrastructure company in Africa, having established one of the continent’s most extensive tower portfolio with over 6,500 towers across four countries. It builds, owns and operates telecom passive infrastructure, providing services to mobile network operators.
