Privately held ICT company Vox (formerly Vox Telecom) said on Wednesday that its shareholders have approved a R550m investment to invest in, among other things, broadband fibre-optic infrastructure.
The investment will be used to extend Vox’s fibre roll-out through its wholly owned subsidiary Frogfoot Networks, said Vox CEO Jacques du Toit in a statement. In addition, the money will be used to “bolster job creation and improve efficiencies through enhanced automation”, Du Toit said.
“The capital injection into our operations endorses our conversion strategy. We are moving away from being just an Internet service provider into a telco that provides connectivity and integrated services. We are laying the foundation to secure market share and growth in key geographic precincts around South Africa,” he said.
The bulk of the R550m investment will be used to “fast-track” Vox’s fibre-to-the-home and fibre-to-the-business networks. In the past 18 months, the company has secured 86 000 FTTH and 10 000 FTTB “opportunities”, Du Toit said. “We now have more than 300 coverage areas where we are able to provide fibre related services.”
Some of the money will be used to grow Vox’s salesforce from 280 people now, to 450 within the next 18 months. It said that over the past 24 months, it has invested R50m into the first phase of a sales expansion programme. Du Toit claimed that the investment will give Vox the largest direct salesforce in South African telecoms. The expanded salesforce will be complemented by new channel partners, including agents, resellers and wholesale partners.
In addition, Vox will train 24 “previously disadvantaged individuals” in its 14-month executive management development programme.
Lastly, Vox will continue to focus on the automation of its internal processes, Du Toit said. This includes the migration to a new operations and business support system that has been developed over the past two years. — © 2017 NewsCentral Media