MTN South Africa and Cell C have signed a comprehensive new roaming deal, potentially making it more complicated for Telkom to pursue an acquisition of Cell C.

The new “long-form roaming and services agreement” will allow Cell C to roam on MTN’s network in all areas of the country. Previously, it only had access to MTN’s 2G, 3G and 4G network in selected parts of the country.

“This is aligned to MTN’s strategy to further develop the group’s wholesale business and will allow
both MTN and Cell C to harness greater efficiencies in providing telecommunications services, while
supporting a more sustainable and competitive industry,” MTN said in a statement to shareholders on Monday morning.

“MTN looks forward to transparent engagement with relevant stakeholders regarding this important industry milestone.”

The expanded deal with MTN was a prerequisite of a planned recapitalisation of Cell C being led by the Buffet Consortium. Cell C has said previously that it hopes to have the Buffet deal wrapped up by the end of the year.

However, Telkom last week said it is again interested in a possible acquisition of the troubled company. This is despite Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko having said previously that he is no longer interested in a deal. — (c) 2019 NewsCentral Media