Liquid Intelligent Technologies will ramp up the rollout of its 5G network, targeting companies operating in industries such as manufacturing and mining, after spending R111m to secure a relatively small portion of radio frequency spectrum at the recent auction.
Liquid is part of Zimbabwean businessman Strive Masiyiwa's newly established holding company Cassava Technologies.
CEO Deon Geyser, who has been with the company since February last year, said Liquid will use the spectrum to expand its 5G network with the main aim of helping companies automate their operations.
He said 5G technology is built for mass capacity and with its business-to-business focus Liquid “sees an opportunity in automation in areas such as manufacturing plants, ports and mining”.
Geyser said manufacturing facilities in Germany were using 5G for automating their plants, while some ports in developed countries used 5G for surveillance, autonomous drones and autonomous machines.
A report by PwC on 5G in manufacturing said the unique advantages of 5G in further automating the factory floor and incorporating new services into products will make it a must-have in the post-Covid era.
The 5G-enabled factory will have the capacity to maintain connections among far more sensors than either wired or previous wireless facilities, offering the potential to connect just about anything, the report said.
Geyser believes that 5G will change the way consumers and industries work with technology and that this “opens the door for us on revenues”.
Liquid has vast fibre networks and provides data centres and other telecommunications and digital products and services.
Geyser said the company was deliberate in bidding for a small portion of the spectrum.
We have a different business model and we are strategic on what we want to do
— Liquid CEO Deon Geyser
“We have a different business model and we are strategic on what we want to do. While wireless is important, we have a fibre and data centre strategy. We have a game plan and we see ourselves as a diversified player,” Geyser said.
“We may make certain investment into spectrum, others will make a lot and therein lies an opportunity because there is a [growth] opportunity for us as we provide fibre to towers throughout the country, and while 5G is great to have, somewhere it has to connect to the fibre network on the ground. The demand on fibre will increase,” he said.
Liquid's competitors that have also secured spectrum licenses are heavily focused on the consumer market with plans to spend billions of rand in expanding and improving coverage.
Asked if Liquid would consider re-entering the consumer market, Geyser said its approach to consumers would be through companies, where it provides bulk SIM cards that employers distribute to enable employees to be connected remotely.
He said entering the consumer market directly would require huge investments, including in the distribution platform for its products.
“We will leave consumer business to companies that are already focusing on that and are good at it. We see growth coming out of segments we are investing heavily into, and I believe that what we are doing from a technology perspective is driven around changing the world of the enterprise,” he said.
A year ago, Liquid raised $840m (R13.4bn) from international bond markets and local funders. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, subscribed to $100m of that bond and in November took its total funding to $250m to help the company build data centres in countries including Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco and Ghana, and for the rollout of fibreoptic cable on the continent.
Liquid derives most of its revenue from network business, while it is seeing fastest revenue growth in areas such as the cloud, security and data centres.
Geyser said the data centre expansion was a result of its partnership with international cloud computing service providers.
“Our partners have a clear view as to where they want to have hosting services, so because of our partnerships globally we have a clear landscape as to how they see the market, then we choose markets to go and build (data centres),” he said.
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