Annual Report 2013

Namibia’s economy has impacted positively on the disposable income of its people due to several factors. That is the pillar of a year’s extraordinary financial performance. However, it is crucial to stress that MTC was very able to capture a valuable slice of that available disposable income by accelerating innovative initiatives in its offers to the market, increasing the more-value-formoney concept to consumers.

Multi devices are becoming central and impact all aspects of our lives. Due to this phenomenon, active subscribers are still increasing, with multi devices being led by smartphones, followed by devices enabling mobile Internet connectivity via a computer, and hovering in the middle, the tablets.

Anticipating the exploding demand for data, MTC deployed advanced, faster (HSPA+ and LTE ) and high capacity networks to meet customer needs over the last few years. I have to emphasise, that today we are not only delivering one of the most advanced mobile data networks on the continent, on par with developed regions, but are also well-prepared for the data demand tsunami that will arise over the next 3 to 5 years. All the tremendous investments and efforts in terms of infrastructural improvements, the submarine cable, the national fibre backbone, the advanced 3G SingleRAN and the 4GLTE radio networks, as well as the migrated IP core systems, are evident in the delivery of excellent mobile bandwidth.

Looking at the data volume usage produced on MTC’s Network, a constant increase of usage is apparent. It is noteworthy that the growth is 1.3 fold, comparing volume usage from September 2013 to September 2012. With that, MTC surpassed one quarter of revenue generated from data, underpinning the stream revenue direction migration from voice to data.

Data Revenues

% of service (data & sms) revenues

LTE (Family) penetration by connections, 2011-17 Source:GSMA Intelligence

It is notable that the 4GLTE uptake at yearend review, is more than 35% of data traffic. MTC decided to deploy 4GLTE , being the second on the continent to do so and at the same time more than the most advanced networks in the world. Even without having a wide variety of smartphones that are LTE enabled because suppliers are lagging behind in bringing them to our region, MTC reached a remarkable level that can be compared to the most advanced markets in the world.

With the business model being transformed from voice to data, any industry would face severe disruption. The Mobile Industry is assisting the OTT’s (over-the-top), using its operator infrastructure ecosystems with innovative and agile systems and are providing a substitute to traditional services without additional cost to the consumer. Although Mobile Operators have ways to charge data usage from customers, the challenge is how to mitigate losses from traditional services and capture those losses into the Operator charge for pipe usage. The transformation framework enables Operators to deploy more innovative packages in order not to become an unsustainable dump pipe, i.e. an operator’s network is being used simply to transfer bytes between the customer’s device and the Internet.

The late founder of Apple convinced us that we have to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology and not to start with the technology and towards who would buy that technology. That vision invented the smartphone of our days, and amongst others, explained what counts most; the incredible benefits a technology company can offer the customer. Because we believe that Steve Jobs was and is right, we at MTC believe that technology is a means to an end. We base our business of introducing technology to deliver services that improve the lives of people and make our customers more efficient in moving forward. That is evident in our quest to introduce groundbreaking technologies in Namibia, the most recent being 4GLTE . We use the same mindset when we introduced a package such as “Super Aweh”, through which we introduced an USSD structured menu from which a customer can select a preferred package. Then we introduced vending machines in our own stores whereby customers can easily pay their postpaid invoice or make direct top-ups to a prepaid account with notes and coins.

Ultimately, MTC would like to unleash and deliver technology for innovation potential. Our core focus is the infrastructure potential. If we want to translate those investment and efforts into products and services and then into superior customer experience, then we need to transform our IT systems as well. Based on that vision, MTC introduced an tremendous transformation in its B/OSS (Operational/ Business Support Systems). This can be explained in layman’s terms that all the IT platforms that support our operations on the network as well as supporting our business with customer–facing activities of which the most important application is billing, is being modernised. This transformation process was named MTCXXI, based on the vision that this next step will accommodate MTC’s future needs beyond the 21st century. Important to note, is that this new B/OSS will reach a balanced ecosystem with a problem solving methodology which will exponentially increase the efficiency of operational support (OSS) underpinned with technology integrated views of our customer touch points (BSS).

The Market

During the period under the review, MTC added a total of 176,281 new active SIM Connections, passing through the 2.2 million mark, the equivalent of Namibia’s population. Nevertheless, that statistic represents that active SIM connections now are increasing at single digit increments, showing the level of the market at this moment.

As I mentioned several times, but need to reiterate, multi SIM cards connecting multi devices, cellphones, smartphones, tablets, and computers per customer is the main reason of MTC’s customer base being larger than the population. However, we need to underline that MTC connects the possible unconnected.

The Regulatory Environment

The year under review brought some new developments in terms of the regulatory framework under the guidance of the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN).

The dominant positions were determined, and MTC together with the incumbent Fixed and now also Mobile operator, are now deemed “Dominant”. CRAN used a single market opposite to developed market trends, and exempt the smaller players from the criteria defined by the Act. Although MTC believes that this might impact negatively on innovation, especially in terms of next generation networks, we have to support CRAN’s objectives of speeding up the implementation of electronic communication networks by promoting the sharing of infrastructure. Keeping that perspective in mind, MTC believes that the obligations of the dominant operators should be separating passive and active infrastructure obligations - the first mentioned already is a remarkable achievement.

On the topic of regulation, at the end of the reviewed year, mobile and fixed termination rates as agreed between the major players, dropped to N$0.20. Termination rates are decreasing all over the world, and likewise in Namibia, big changes were brought about between 2009 and 2011, when the rates were dropped with N$0.30. However, no significant financial impacts are expected for this movement, because MTC already accommodated its losses in the previous years.

Strategic Posturing

You must have heard from someone that in general all companies are able to define well “What they do”, i.e. what service(s)/product(s) that they deliver. However, what is not so easily done is that a company can explain clearly “How they do/make” their service(s)/product(s) become available to their customers. What is very unlikely, is that a company can explain exactly “Why they do what they do”. And that Why is a purpose of, or the cause of a company.

In MTC we know exactly “What we do”. It is very easy: providing telecommunication services. Also, we know “How we do” this. It is to provide excellent communication services. “Why we do what we do” is because MTC believe that we can use technology to deliver services to improve lives of people and make them more efficient going forward. This might be theoretical, but in reality it works because the idea is for our customers to use our service because of why we deliver, not what we deliver and neither how we deliver.

As the market leader in the mobile telecommunications industry, as recognised by our nation - MTC invests heavily in the latest technology to keep Namibia in line with global trends. And one of the significant component of that heavily investment is the Internet accessibility in order to narrows the digital divide; the divide which favours the more developed countries in stark contrast with lesser the developed countries worldwide.

In that regard, I am very proud of what MTC has achieved since its inception; covering Namibia’s vast and less populated rural areas, which are economically less viable, while at the same time implementing tremendous efforts to realise network capacity and reliability in most urban areas. In this light, one of MTC’s strategic pillars is to provide Internet connectivity. To achieve this, MTC had to deploy thousands of kilometres of optic fibres across the country. Furthermore, being a member of a consortium of the most advanced submarine cable (WACS), we will connect Namibians to any other location in the world in an affordable way at lightning speeds.

All of these ambitions turned into reality because of a tremendous capacity of investment, the vision and knowledge to choose the perfect timing of technological advancements and having a strong, strategic partner with worldwide exposure to excel at our vision. Last but not least, we have a strong and committed team of Namibians to turn this vision into reality. Being Chairperson of the Board of Directors, and synchronising all of these critical components; is a reality that exceeded all my expectations.

Moving forward, I foresee extreme challenging resolutions to improve what we already have achieved. I can understand that the Telecommunications Industry has more challenges than other industries, because of digitalisation challenging networks to deploy higher speed connectivity; at the same time opening disruptive entities which will arise in addition to intensive investment. To overcome that, MTC needs to tackle each challenge in the best way so as to maintain long-term sustainability.

As a final remark, on behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to acknowledge all MTC’s dedicated staff with the Executive Committee chaired by the MD at its helm. All the milestones and the financial performance which you have delivered during the time of review, are truly remarkable. I personally thank all of our Namibian and Portuguese Directors, it is an honour and a pleasure to serve with you.

Dr. Itah U Kandjii-Murangi. Chairlady