JSE-listed telecommunications specialist Huge Group said on Monday that it has partnered with MTN South Africa to provide additional GSM voice services to its subsidiary companies.
The move comes after an ugly dispute with current partner Cell C earlier this year landed up in court. Huge Group won that court battle, and the parties were ordered into an arbitration process.
Huge Group CEO James Herbst told TechCentral on Monday that it remains the company’s goal to continue to do business with Cell C. But, he said, a “dual supplier relationship is always better than a single supplier”.
Andy Openshaw, Huge Group’s chief operating officer, said the agreement with MTN will be the “new foundation for Huge Telecom’s full-suite telephony service”, which substitutes fixed-line copper cables with a wireless, GSM-based alternative for corporate telephony.
“We believe that this partnership with MTN brings the credibility we need to aggressively grow this market segment,” Openshaw said in a statement. “We have proved that GSM is the perfect substitute for copper cables in delivering corporate PABX telephony solutions. Importantly, MTN has a quality network with significant coverage and is a highly respected mobile network operator that brings innovative solutions to market.”
Huge Telecom has over 20 000 customers and 43 000 telephone lines. “With the Huge Group of companies, we think that we can bring significant competition to the fixed-line voice telephony market,” said Quintus de Beer, GM for technology at MTN. — © 2019 NewsCentral Media