MTN standardises planning tools across group and upgrades BSS

MTN Group is to standardise its radio and microwave network planning across 18 countries using TEOCO’s ASSET Radio and ASSET Backhaul tools.
MTN, which has operations across Africa and the Middle East, faces considerable operational challenges in collecting data from across its subsidiaries, which operate in countries as diverse as South Africa, Nigeria, the Yemen and Afghanistan. Standardising on TEOCO’s toolset, the company says, will allow it to gain a much better view of its network assets and help it standardise the reporting of its population coverage across Africa. This will help it to focus and prioritise CAPEX investments where they are most needed, and allow it to monitor the impact of its dual-data strategy to drive up adoption in both urban and rural areas.
“The data we collect on our subscribers needs to be highly accurate if it is to improve our business operations,” said MTN’s Navindran Naidoo, Executive – Network Design & Planning. “Having worked with TEOCO for more than 20 years we are certain they will help us achieve our subscriber goals.”
Atul Jain the Founder and CEO of TEOCO noted that having the correct tools in place to monitor and analyse networks and subscriber bases is vital. He said that without this capability “you are blind to issues that are affecting the network, and blind to the outcomes of customer behaviour”. He argues that the new tools his company is providing will deliver significant economies of scale to MTN, and will also enable the group to deliver a differentiated customer and mobile network experience.
Meanwhile, in the BSS layer, MTN announced it had selected Tecnotree to help it modernise its infrastructure. The new solution will support digital services across every business process and channel, and provide better customer service. This is an upgrade of MTN’s existing Tecnotree stack, covering customer lifecycle management, the ‘MyLife Dashboard’, catalogue management, convergent billing, order management, loyalty management and Tecnotree’s Accelerator Platform. In the first instance, Tecnotree’s Digital BSS Suite will be deployed in MTN Ghana.
Dirk Karl, Group Executive and Chief Procurement Officer at MTN Group commented: “This partnership represents another significant milestone in our digital transformation strategy at MTN Group. An integrated digital ecosystem is the cornerstone for delivering operational efficiencies and a more enhanced customer experience. As we continue our digital transformation journey, we are able to be more agile, efficient and customer centric.”
Padma Ravichander, the CEO of Tecnotree noted that MTN was the first example of a ‘Digital Model Opco’ in the region.