It follows rivals Vodacom and the Remgro-controlled Community Investment Ventures Holdings , announcing they were merging their fibre network operations.Both deals would need the approval of the competition authorities.The announcement that MTN and Telkom are looking to merge is no real surprise, says Dominic Cull, a telecom lawyer and owner of Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions.
For Vodacom, the merger with DFA's 13,200 km fibre network, along with Vumatel's fibre network 31,000 km, with its own fibre assets, will give it a significant footing in the rapidly growing fibre market.With mobile phone penetration now well over a 100%, the mobile operators see the burgeoning fibre market as their next big growth sector.
Fibre only covered 2,2 million homes, which still leaves 17 million homes without access to fibre, Joosub added.For its part, the merger of MTN and Telkom would also see MTN transition into a powerful fibre operator. Under the proposed deal, the fibre assets of both companies would be housed in a separate business, and not see a change to CIVH’s"open-access" business model.
BISouthAfrica Hopefully they will only improve network coverage and not hike the tariffs
BISouthAfrica What 🙆♂️then Telkom will be expensive for sure
BISouthAfrica 😮