South African state owned entity, SENTECH has expanded its business from providing broadcasting signal distribution services to becoming a key service provider to the telecoms sector in the country. Operating a portfolio of 340 sites as well as a satellite platform, the company has also extended its offering to Managed Network Infrastructure Services for both active and passive infrastructure, in response to the growing trend for outsourced facilities management. TowerXchange speak to SENTECH’s Acting COO, Tebogo Leshope to understand the company’s strategy.
TowerXchange: Please can you introduce SENTECH to TowerXchange readers.
Tebogo Leshope, Acting COO, SENTECH:
SENTECH SOC Limited (“SENTECH”) is a state-owned company established through the SENTECH Act No. 63 of 1996 to provide ‘common carrier’ broadcasting signal distribution services to licensed broadcasters in South Africa. SENTECH’s core public service mandate was expanded in 2002 to provide an international gateway and common carrier multimedia services in accordance with government’s imperative to liberalise the telecommunications sector.
Over the years SENTECH has evolved by reinventing itself and transforming from solely providing signal distribution services into a company that provides communication technology services following the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications sectors.
Providing communication networks and services in the convergent environment resulted in a fundamental shift in the company from being a financially sustainable broadcasting signal distribution business to being a key industry participant in a highly competitive telecommunications and multimedia market.
SENTECH operates 340 terrestrial signal distribution sites, as set out in figure one below and a satellite platform to provide customers with signal distribution services for television and radio. These networks are continually operated and maintained to sustain reliability and to ensure the availability of services and long-term operations continuity. The SENTECH infrastructure network is spread across the country to enable distributed services offerings as geographically demonstrated in figure one
TowerXchange: Can you explain more detail about SENTECH’s portfolio of sites
Tebogo Leshope, Acting COO, SENTECH:
SENTECH has a list of 340 sites, and is currently looking at getting fibre rolled out to the major sites, most of the sites are equipped with emergency backup power from standby generators that automatically start up when the mains supply falls away.
All sites are equipped with security systems, all equipment is monitored through our Network Management Centre and Regional offices.
SENTECH towers are strategically placed to ensure the best terrestrial coverage for radio and television customers throughout South Africa.
SENTECH is currently constructing two new sites, one in Mpumalanga and one in KwaZulu Natal. In terms of decommissioning, only one site is being decommissioned due to access constraints. The services will be moved to an alternate existing site.
Figure one: SENTECH operational centres
TowerXchange: In terms of managing the O&M of sites, is this something that is done in-house or outsourced to third parties - do you manage both active and passive? What are some of the complexities around operating a portfolio of sites in South Africa and how has SENTECH adapted to meet these challenges?
Tebogo Leshope, Acting COO, SENTECH:
Operations and maintenance of sites is done in-house. SENTECH manages both active and passive infrastructure.
The major challenge is operating the widespread sites 24/7/365 without affecting services. The SENTECH Operations Division have 17 offices around the country to try and reduce downtime and improve response and restoration time. The average travel distance for the operational teams is almost 200km. SENTECH’ Operations Division is also currently upgrading its Network Management System. This will allow the operations team to manage certain assets remotely without the need to travel to site. This will greatly reduce restoration time for certain events.
One of the major challenges facing SENTECH is the vandalisation and theft of assets, we have seen a significant increase in these activities and they negatively affect our ability to deliver quality services. SENTECH is in the process of deploying higher levels of security at their sites to try and prevent these activities.
TowerXchange: Can you explain more detail about SENTECH’s NOC and the systems that you have in place to monitor site uptime and respond to alerts cost effectively?
Tebogo Leshope, Acting COO, SENTECH:
The Network Monitoring Centre (NMC) is a 24-hour operation management centre, monitoring services live on all our networks. We have a network management system with full FCAPS capabilities. The NMS will alert us to, amongst other things Mains power failures; Standby generators (running time, fuel levels); uninterrupted power supply (UPS); and security (guards, cameras, access, etc.)
TowerXchange:How extensively are SENTECH’s sites used by third parties and what is the company’s vision on this front; how do SENTECH see themselves as playing alongside MNOs and independent towercos in the South African market?
Tebogo Leshope, Acting COO, SENTECH:
SENTECH caters for more than 80 customers, which include all mobile network operators (MNOs), wireless internet service providers (WISPs), telematics service providers (TSPs) and large state owned entities with network infrastructure requirements.
The vision for Managed Network Infrastructure Services is to respond to the market demand for outsourced Facilities Management Services, characterised by integrated end-to-end management of passive and active network infrastructure for network operators and property owners. A combination of the core technical skills and business systems improvement will potentially propel SENETCH to be a market leader.
Customers will be able to contract SENTECH to manage their networks and passive infrastructure, and on-sell any available capacity on customers’ terrestrial sites. This will allow the customer to focus on its core business, whilst relying on a world-class network operator to manage its communications needs.
TowerXchange: We understand that SENTECH also offer network management services to third parties; can you explain why SENTECH have decided to get into this field and what benefits the company can bring
Tebogo Leshope, Acting COO, SENTECH:
Managed Services is the proactive management of an ICT assets or objects by a third party, on behalf of a customer. Most of SENTECH’s customers own a network of some sort, including amongst others, networks for the provision of telecommunications; broadband connectivity; and fleet tracking services.
With its vast experience in managing different types of networks, from broadcasting to telecommunications, SENTECH has built a strong capability in network design, deployment, operation and maintenance. These skills and technical capabilities are the ideal foundation to offer network infrastructure management services to other similar network owners. This would extend SENTECH’s portfolio of services to include Managed Network Services.
The network infrastructure is continually operated and maintained to ensure reliability and availability of services and long-term operations continuity. This will allow the customer to focus on its core business, whilst relying on a world-class network operator to manage its communications needs.
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