The next step for African mobile operators is to offer customers services such as Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) as they look to alternative revenue streams, an expert has indicated.

Chief executive officer of the FTTH Africa Council Juanita Clark has told ITWeb Africa that “it makes absolute sense for operators to offer turn-key services”.

Clark was commenting on a planned move by South African mobile operator MTN to commercially launch a high speed FTTH network in the country as early as June this year.

According to a statement from the telecoms firm, earlier this month it demonstrated a pilot of the project to the residents of Monaghan Farm, a gated estate north of Johannesburg.

A fibre-to-the-home or FTTH network is often described as a network that reaches the home directly from an operator’s central office.

And MTN plans to deliver a commercial FTTH capable of 100Mbps, which is a first in Africa, the statement read.

“Mobile operators have the luxury of having fibre in most neighbourhoods and thus it is a natural migration for operators to offer their clients turn-key bundle services including mobile, fixed line, voice, data, OTT services, etc, all in a single bundle,” Clark told ITWeb Africa.

“While our mobile devices are critical in our day to day lives, and will always be, smart homes and smart cities are not built on mobile technology it is built on end-to-end fibre,” Clark stated.

However, Clark said there still needs to be more education among South Africans about FTHH and the benefits of such a network.

“Massive education is still required on the benefits of FTTH and many homeowners do not truly understand the benefits of FTTH,” she told ITWeb Africa.

“Remember that operators build on demand if demand can be demonstrated in a community they will come.

“I suggest that if you want fibre, get out and lobby your community. If you can demonstrate demand, operators will come to your neighbourhood.”

Clark also noted that there are already companies in other African countries aggressively building FTTH, and that some African countries are ahead of South Africa.

“As voice declines and data doubles annually, operators are looking to diversify their offerings and FTTH is a natural choice,” she concluded.

African countries such as Kenya, Mauritius and Namibia have previously been reported to already moved to roll-out FTTH networks in those regions.