Thought Leadership | 15 May 2025
Author: CIO SA
With over 25 years of experience in the telco industry, Schalk Visser has gone from the nuts and bolts of engineering at Telkom to leading a team of 210 at Cell C in a dual leadership role of CITO.
Since 2012, he has overseen various projects at the mobile network provider, including a massive network upgrade over the last four years – although more recently, he has shifted his focus from projects to people.
Schalk boasts three master’s degrees under his belt: an MS in electrical and electronics engineering from Stellenbosch, and an MBA and MPhil in corporate strategy from GIBS, respectively. Despite a strong engineering background, he adds that his technology journey started when he was 13.
“I wanted to attend an agricultural high school as my grandfather had a farm. My dad wasn’t keen on the idea, so I ended up at a technical high school in Worcester, in the Western Cape,” explains Schalk. “My ‘major’ in high school was electrical engineering and I was fortunate enough to go to Stellenbosch University, where I did an engineering degree. It’s this degree that led me to the world of technology.”
After his first year of electrical engineering studies, Telkom awarded Schalk a bursary. After completing his undergraduate degree, he found himself still enjoying varsity life, so he went on to apply for a master’s bursary, again through Telkom, where he was paid a stipend. After completing his master’s, he relocated to Pretoria as he had to “work back” the Telkom bursary.
During his first few months at Telkom, Schalk befriended a few young guys who were also studying at the University of Pretoria, and some of them subsequently moved to Vodacom. An opportunity soon arose for Schalk to also go to Vodacom, and he ended up spending six years at the mobile operator.
“I then had a chance to go to Mozambique, where I spent a year, but in 2012 Cell C crossed my path when Alan Knott-Craig joined the organisation,” adds Schalk. “My peer, who was head of engineering at Vodacom Mozambique, announced he was going to join Alan Knott-Craig, and a few months later, he invited me to move to Cell C stating that, ‘It’s lekker and exciting’. So, in July 2012, I joined Cell C, and I haven’t looked back.”
Avoiding burnout and shifting focus
At Cell C, Schalk leads a team of about 210 people in the technology group, which consists of IT, the largest component, the divisional network (a typical engineering function in a mobile network operator) and the service and security operations centre (which monitors the network round the clock).
About two years ago, a new function called technology capability enablement was formed. According to Schalk, this function was set up because the organisation wanted to marry technology capabilities with the business’s objectives. “The technology capability enablement function translates what the business and its customers need, and what technology is required to make that happen,” he adds.
Schalk says that the biggest insight from his career is that the devil really is in the details. “If you’re going to get stuck in the detail of everything, you’re not going to get to everything – you’ll just burn out. That’s why in the last three years I’ve shifted my focus from predominantly projects to the people side of things. I have more one-on-one sessions across the technology group, including my executive team and regular check-ins with anyone. I pick up small things in those conversations; it gives me a holistic view of what’s happening and how to tweak efficiencies and effectiveness.”
For the past four years, Cell C has undergone a huge network upgrade. Schalk explains that before the start of this project, at the time, the likes of MTN and Vodacom had 12,500 sites each, while Cell C had about 5,500 sites (with LTE capability only in the large metros).
“Hypothetically, we realised that even if we spent R40 billion in one year, and Vodacom and MTN stopped rolling out their networks, we could reach parity. That was assuming we could obtain permissions for site builds and transmission. That was not something we could ever do, so we had to change our business model.”
Schalk says that MTN was open to a partnership based on a non-traditional roaming agreement. Luckily due to advances in technology, Cell C could implement an agreement where the mobile operator switched off their physical radio access network and then enabled a virtual radio access network on top of MTN’s physical infrastructure, which was completed in 2023. Schalk notes that this project didn’t come without challenges, as its commercial nature was complex, along with the need to still attend to internal projects, like an entire overhaul and migration of the billing system.
“However, we’ve just completed the same implementation with Vodacom,” adds Schalk. “Now we have two virtual radio access networks overlaying each other, which transmit the Cell C network ID; the focus now is managing the [increased] traffic between these networks. Ultimately, the value we give to the customer is that we can offer them the best of the best – the fastest and most reliable coverage.”
Taking a step back and mutual synergy
“If I look at the young people coming into the organisation, there’s been a complete shift,” notes Schalk. “The new generation has a completely different outlook on life and engagement is key, otherwise, they’ll jump to another opportunity.”
For Schalk, allowing younger employees to get hands-on learning experience, as well as helping them understand the organisation’s bigger picture, goes a long way.
“I was very eager when I joined Vodacom, and my manager at the time called me aside and told me to hold my horses; to take a step back to understand what I was busy with and why I was doing it. That’s something I’ll never forget because it’s easy to get stuck in the details and lose sight of where you’re heading.”
Schalk adds that, in the last year or so, he’s noticed businesses across the board becoming more educated on what technology can do for them, considering the likes of AI and cloud computing. Organisations are also understanding how seemingly different roles can create mutual synergy.
“At Cell C we have combined the CIO and CTO role, and the reason for that is we see conversions of these capabilities because where IT used to be a standalone function, these two worlds are now merging,” adds Schalk. “I have engineers working on AWS and deploying cloud infrastructure who used to wire up a box, now they must learn IT skills. Yet the IT guys teach the network engineering guys, and in turn, they flag gaps that IT were not aware of. So, both leverage off each other.”
Triathlons, trail runs and the future of connectivity
Not one for a sedentary lifestyle, in his free time, Schalk competes in triathlons. “My mornings start at 04:30, and I find that if I don’t train, my day is not that great,” he admits. Weekends are reserved for family time and long (three-hour) bike rides, runs, or swims. Along with his wife, Schalk is currently training for a 60 km trail run in George on 22 May. When not training for an Iron Man, you’ll likely find him kicking back in the bush (ideally with no reception!).
“I’ve been in the telco world for over two decades, and it’s been quite the journey to experience this industry grow from something exclusive to something that everyone uses daily,” comments Schalk.
For him, connectivity is more than just a device linking to a network signal. Connectivity talks to a home Wi-Fi network or being in the sticks with a satellite connection. “One of Cell C’s [strategy] pillars is to raise network perception to become a connectivity partner, whatever that connectivity may be,” he adds.
“That’s where technology is heading – like 6G that converges connectivity platforms. With that in mind, we need to consider how to best structure our partnerships to prepare for that digital evolution [6G is still in early development but may be ready for commercial markets by 2030; according to Ericsson, this technology is set to change life as we know it by merging digital and physical worlds].”
“6G won’t mean Cell C will launch satellites into space or build Wi-Fi networks. Instead, we’ll partner with the right providers to give our customers the best multi-platform and performance experience. I believe this technology will completely change how we interact with the world in powerful ways we don’t yet even realise,” he concludes.
Cell C is a leading mobile provider in South Africa offering a wide range of products and services, including voice, data, device and SIM deals to more than 20 million customers.
