Plans flow as Liquid takes over at Neotel
CEO excited about gaining rare digital dividend spectrum
Liquid Telecom, the fast-growing pan-African telecoms operator controlled by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, is to spend billions of rands expanding newly acquired subsidiary Neotel's data centres, wireless networks and fixed-line broadband infrastructure. Nic Rudnick, Liquid's CEO, said this included a plan to take advantage of spectrum from Neotel, the only telecoms operator in South Africa with valuable "digital dividend" spectrum below 900MHz. He hinted Liquid had big plans to exploit this frequency band in urban and also underserviced areas. Under the new management, Neotel would shed its image as South Africa's "second network operator" - it was originally licensed to break Telkom's monopoly - and become a leader in telecoms, Rudnick said. On Friday, Liquid, which operates in 15 markets in Africa, completed the R6.5-billion acquisition of Neotel from India's Tata Communications and other shareholders, giving the Econet Group subsidiary its first significant presence in...
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