"We are not going to go tearing off into scores of countries," he said, but the company had identified a few that had a friendly regulatory environment and where Altech already had a presence or local contacts.
"We are engaging with the regulators and local infrastructure partners and are doing due diligence work on tariffs," Sidley said.
Two networks could be up and running "sooner rather than later," subject to Altech winning spectrum and regulatory approval, he said.
Altech is also one of 24 companies bidding for a tender to operate a wireless network for the City of Johannesburg.
Sidley would not say how much Altech is pumping into the Africa initiative, which will be led by a newly created company with an undisclosed budget.
Nigeria is one of the targets because Altech's NamITech division has a manufacturing plant there and is familiar with local operating conditions.
The intention is to set up wireless networks for densely populated cities that will offer internet access, cheap phone calls and video streaming to businesses and consumers.
They would use voice over internet protocol.
"There are a great many opportunities in Africa for lighting up cities with this technology. Internet access would be the first service. There is a massive demand for internet access in Africa," Sidley said.
Altech CEO Craig Venter has long tried to steer the company into becoming an operator in its own right.
That would take it a step above its traditional activities of selling equipment and services to operators without enjoying the high revenues and profit margins they gain by supplying telecoms services to end users.
Though its subsidiary Autopage sells cellular services, it does so on behalf of the cellular operators and not in its own right.
Altech had been cautious in its approach to broadband telecommunications and had done extensive market and technology research, Venter said.
"We feel it is now strategically appropriate for Altech to take this new direction.
"We are confident in the CityNet Wireless technology and believe we have chosen the optimum moment to exploit this opportunity in Africa."
The technology from CityNet Wireless is used in more than 40 cities, including densely populated Houston, Panama City and Mexico City, and could be adapted inexpensively for Africa, Venter said.
Source: Business Day
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