With only a few months to go until Telkom becomes SA’s fourth mobile network operator, the question on many people’s lips is whether the fixed-line incumbent will start a price with Vodacom, MTN and Cell C. Telkom hasn’t yet decided on tariffs for its mobile offering. The company’s MD, Nombulelo “Pinky” Moholi, says these must be still be approved by the board
Browsing: MTN
I’m sometimes asked by investors whether the growth story has gone out of SA telecommunications stocks. A series of regulations, coupled with growing competition and a weak economy, is putting pressure on operators’ margins. Is it time for investors to abandon the sector? Before I attempt to answer that question, it’s worth looking back at how the telecoms sector in SA has developed over the past decade
Wireless Business Solutions (WBS), the holding company of iBurst, is at advanced stage of discussions about building a mobile cellular network in a sign that infrastructure competition in SA is stepping up another gear, TechCentral has learnt. If it goes ahead with its plans, which one senior source close to the company says appears likely, WBS will become SA’s fifth mobile network operator after Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and the soon-to-be-launched Telkom
The cost of communicating on all three of SA’s mobile operators has risen, not fallen, despite the substantial reduction in wholesale mobile termination rates on 1 March, two industry executives have claimed. Howard Sackstein, CEO of telecommunications company Saicom, who has analysed a large range packages – both postpaid and prepaid – offered by
MTN is not in discussions to acquire a stake in India’s Loop Telecom, the JSE-listed telecommunications group said on Monday. This followed a report in India’s Business Standard newspaper that the two telecoms providers were in talks. The newspaper did not name its sources, merely citing people close to the developments
The most important public hearings to be held by SA’s telecommunications regulator in years kick off today (Monday) in Midrand, north of Johannesburg. The hearings, on wholesale call termination rates, are set to be a legalistic battleground as top regulatory and legal experts from the incumbent operators fight tooth and nail to lessen the reduction in the rates proposed by the Independent Communications Authority of SA
The stage is set for a battle of epic proportions at public hearings in Johannesburg next week. That’s when operators will make their arguments for and against proposed cuts in wholesale call termination rates. MTN, for one, has warned of dire consequences for its business and for the entire mobile ecosystem if industry regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), proceeds with its plans to cut wholesale mobile call termination rates to 65c/minute this year. Other operators have also lodged strong objections
Telecommunications group Telkom will leverage its existing customers, offering mobile products to them as it gears up to launch SA’s fourth mobile operator. The company has finally begun to provide some details of its plans in the mobile space, where it is spending R6bn over five years to build a network to rival those operated by Vodacom, MTN
MTN has made it clear that it believes growth in Nigeria’s telecommunications market is far from over. The SA-based group’s largest subsidiary, MTN Nigeria, has raised more than R16bn to fund the expansion of its network in the populous West African nation. MTN on Wednesday told shareholders that it has recei
MTN has formally ended talks with Weather Investments, the parent of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom, dealing another blow to the SA-based cellphone group CEO Phuthuma Nhleko. The termination of the talks with Orascom’s parent brings to the three the number of high profile but failed potential deals that Nhleko has tried unsuccessfully to pull off in the past tw