Form Of Application

Application Details

SATRA (South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority)

  The Infrastructure Bidders  

GSM 1800 Mhz is the favoured technology.

A new network will initially cost SAR1.2b to SAR4.5b depending on extent of initial coverage and the technology used.

Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, Nortel & Lucent are bidding for the infrastructure contract for the third license. 

Nokia is favoured to win at this point. Nokia South Africa is growing rapidly and, from a current staff headcount of 70, is set to grow, together with new business ventures, to well over 100 before the end of the year. It recently launched a massive training initiative with a GSM test network.

Siemens are also investing heavily to win. Siemens ICN CA (Information and Communication Networks, Communication On Air) completed nominal cell planning and propagation model tuning at the end of 1998 for the third SA license.

Siemens currently also supply MSCs and base stations to Vodacom South Africa.

Detailed radio planning and network design for the third network was completed for the eight major South African cities. A cell planning team has been established in Pretoria using Siemens' Tornado cell planning tool and digitally coded maps. 

Siemens' team of 28 cell planners have completed the overall cell design for the first six years of rollout. 

The network planning team are continuing to develop coverage plots as site acquisitions are confirmed. The site acquisition program is well underway with site leases already signed. 

Siemens already have contracts for 8,000 sites in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban at their disposal. In cases where there are no pre-selected sites available in the search rings or these prove to be unsuitable, their site acquisition teams in the field are identifying suitable sites. As of 1 July 1999, Siemens has surveyed in excess of 500 sites with written reports, drawings and environmental impact assessment, of which 120 have subsequently received building permission.

(Siemens Information supplied by Siemens ICN SA)

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