Plessey Steps Into Operation and Management Services Arena

JOHANNESBURG, November 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Plessey(http://www.plessey.co.za/), the wholly-owned Dimension Data ( http://www.dimensiondata.com/) subsidiary, today announced the launch of its operator-neutral Operation and Management (O&M) Services which will be made available to wireless and cable network operators across the African continent.

This move will see Plessey assume the role of physical infrastructure developer, as well as provide a first class managed infrastructure service on which any operator can build their services.

Plessey specialises in the provision of passive infrastructure for service providers and GSM operators in Africa on a non-shared, shared or multi-tenanted full maintenance lease basis.

Howard Earley, Plessey CEO says, "Plessey has over 50 years' experience in providing Radio Base Station (RBS) site-build and outside plant fibre infrastructure throughout Africa. We have excellent relationships with key operators on the ground, and have for some years been providing several components of managed service in South Africa and East Africa. Extending our offering to include a broader value stack of managed infrastructure service to established, emerging, and embryonic Towercos and network service providers is the next logical step for Plessey."

He explains: "In the past, network operators invested in infrastructure either for their own and exclusive use, or participated to industry sharing initiatives. Today, operators are under increased pressure to reduce their operating costs and capital expenditure. This, coupled with a decreasing EBITDA makes them open to outsourcing the management of their towers to third parties. Sharing a common infrastructure is entirely carrier neutral and does not differentiate between users, and the real benefits to operators are compelling."

Earley says Plessey's O&M Services model also aligns with parent company Dimension Data's goal to become a world leading services-led organisation. "There appears to be deep support for the shared infrastructure model by a number of regulatory bodies throughout Africa," he explains.

According to a study by the TMT advisory firm Delta Partners, there are 200,000 towers in the Middle East and Africa. Delta expects the demand for towers in MEA to increase by 50% over the next five years, driven by factors such as the availability of undersea cable networks, terrestrial fibre networks, broadband wireless technologies and subscriber growth. Circa US$8.0 billion in cumulative tower related CAPEX could be saved if operators were to share towers (The Delta Perspective, April 2009).

For further information contact Howard Earley, Tel: [phone], [e-mail]

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