Dimension Data’s telecommunications division Internet Solutions (IS) may make use of some of the innovative technology coming out of Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (NTT) as it steps up the roll-out of its own telecommunications network infrastructure.

That’s the word from Didata chairman Jeremy Ord, who was speaking to TechCentral a day after the London- and Johannesburg-listed group announced it was being acquired by NTT in an all-cash deal worth R24,4bn.

NTT is one of the world’s largest telecoms operators, and owns Japan’s Docomo.

Ord says that because of deregulation in the telecoms sector in SA and elsewhere in Africa, the opportunities are growing for IS to roll out its own network infrastructure.

He says the Didata division will probably participate in an upcoming auction for radio frequency spectrum in the 2,6GHz band – provided it is satisfied with the auction criteria and the technology requirements of the band.

“IS will have to spend money on infrastructure in the future,” says Ord. However, he cautions that it’s unlikely IS will become a full-service infrastructure player competing with everyone. Rather, he says IS will pick areas of the market where it can “innovate and provide its own infrastructure”.

And IS will almost certainly utilise some of the advanced technologies being developed in the NTT labs, he says.

“They still have incredible innovation, especially in the fields of wireless and fibre,” Ord says. “There’s potentially a great opportunity for Internet Solutions to use some of that technology in the deregulating SA market.”

He says that through Didata’s discussions with NTT, it has kept the Japanese company “very well informed in terms of spectrum and they’ve been extremely positive [about it]. It’s a field they know so well and they have all this innovation taking place which we may be able to use to do great things.” — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral