CASE STUDY

Founded in 1994 as M-Cell , the telecoms provider has grown its operations across several African , Middle East and Asian countries and to date , it is operating in 21 countries in three regions . MTN South Africa ’ s competitors in include Vodacom , Cell C and Telkom Mobile .

Intelligent CIO Africa recently spoke to Giovanni Chiarelli , Chief Technology and Information Officer at MTN South Africa to find out how the company is continuing on the path of innovation as it pushes to be the network of choice for millions of customers in South Africa across residential , enterprise , wholesale segments .

Talk us through your role as Chief Technology and Information Officer ( CTIO ) at MTN South Africa ?

As CTIO I lead the Network and Information Technology systems in MTN South Africa . In essence , the entire value chain from planning , to operations of the technical solutions which provide telecommunication services to more than 30 million customers in South Africa across residential , enterprise and wholesale segments . This ensures that customers enjoy the benefit of a modern connected life by providing state-of-the-art network and IT solutions . I am supported by a very strong technology leadership team who look-after various functions , including Information Technology , Network Engineering , Network Deployment , Network Operations and Technology Enterprise Services teams .

Since taking over in your role , how have you guided your Technology team to put technology at the heart of delivering the business objectives for MTN South Africa ?

When I joined MTN South Africa at the end of 2016 , telecommunications operators were facing various challenges including the public outcry about the cost to communicate , unreliable network performance and poor investment in rural areas . My job was to ensure that MTN South Africa becomes a network of choice to all South Africans and in order to do this , bold decisions needed to be taken . At that time , we embarked on an extensive turnaround and developed a plan base ‘ Fix ’ phase was mostly centred on regaining network competitiveness through a clear prioritisation of the initiatives , re-definition of customer-centric indicators for the technology performance and rebuilding the technology leadership .

During that phase we upgraded the MTN network seeing MTN attaining the largest network rollout to date . Our focus was on creating the very best network experience for our customers . Our dual data strategy ( focusing on 3G and 4G mobile technologies ) has driven significant coverage improvements over the past years , while we also focused on improving our voice quality . It has been challenging to manage legacy mobile technologies , while deploying new technologies , in the spectrumconstrained environment within which we operate . In order to achieve the network experience that have been highlighted in the MyBroadband Mobile Network Quality Report , along with other independent benchmarking providers ( P3 / Umlaut , Ookla , Tutela , OpenSignal ), significant investment had to take place in a wellbalanced combination of innovation , planning and deployment . We worked on ( amongst others ) our radio design , technology features ( LTE 900MHz coverage

www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA 51