Cell C opts to roam with MTN

Cell C plans to ditch Vodacom’s network in favour of a new roaming deal with MTN. Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos said on Tuesday the implementation of the “multibillion-rand long-term” agreement would be completed within months.

Cell C plans to ditch Vodacom’s network in favour of a new roaming agreement with MTN.

Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos said on Tuesday the implementation of the “multibillion-rand long-term” agreement would be completed within months.

“Cell C completed a comprehensive assessment of the wholesale offerings available in the market, and based on MTN’s significant network investment in recent times, we concluded that MTN offered the best solution for our business going forward,” he said. Dos Santos said that while the operator’s roaming agreement with Vodacom would continue, it would mainly run 2G traffic and only “limited 3G traffic” on Vodacom’s network. “We will be migrating the majority of roaming 3G traffic and all 4G traffic to MTN,” he said.

According to MTN, the bulk of the services would be transferred to it within two months.

Cell C said MTN would provide it with 3G and 4G services in areas where it had chosen to buy coverage rather than selfbuild. This was mainly outside of major cities.

Cell C said the deal would boost its 4G coverage from 33% to 80% of the population.

Cell C chief strategy officer Robert Pasley said last week the company had largely secured its capital expenditure funding for at least the next seven months.

Meanwhile, MTN said it launched its initial public offering in Ghana on Tuesday.

The offer, a condition of its 4G licence in the West African state, was expected to close at the end of July.

MTN Ghana is offering up to 4.6-billion newly issued and existing shares, or 35% of its issued shares. MTN said in its prospectus its net profits in Ghana were expected to climb from 718-million Ghanaian cedi (R1.94bn) in 2018 to in excess of 1-billion in 2020.