Internet Solutions (IS), Telkom South Africa’s principal rival in the country’s wholesale broadband market, is reportedly investigating the option of moving into Asia, with the help of its parent company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT). The Japanese group acquired IS’s then-parent Dimension Data in July 2010, in a takeover deal valued at USD3.2 billion. For its part, IS first signified its intentions to broaden its horizons in November 2011, when it formed a new overseas division branded ‘IS International’. According to the company website, IS International already has ‘significant investments’ in both East Africa (Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Mauritius and Tanzania) and West Africa (Nigeria, Angola and Ghana), with future investments planned in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
IT News Africa quotes Derek Wilcocks, managing director of IS, as saying: ‘There are a number of exciting prospects on the horizon for IS International. We have taken a number of existing businesses and consolidated them as we plan to move deeper into Africa, which we are extremely excited about due to the sheer number of possibilities on the continent. We are also working closely with our parent company, NTT, as we expand into Asia. We have already moved our Asia point of presence (PoP) into NTT’s data centre, which was a major step in ensuring that all our sub-Saharan African clients have connectivity anywhere in the world when they travel or look to expand. We are on a steady expansion drive in terms of building out our fibre and last mile networks, as well as our data centre network. We will also be spending to realise our investment into WACS and also realise our other business objectives’.