DISCONNECTION DISRUPTION
Licence suspension held off
MTN has won a stay order in civil court to prevent suspension of its Liberian operations
❚❚ MTN HAD won a “stay order” in the civil court in Monrovia, Liberia, that would prevent the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) from suspending its operating licence in that country, Africa’s largest cellphone operator said yesterday.
On May 22, the regulator ordered MTN Liberia to reconnect rival Comium “with immediate effect” or its operating licence would be suspended for two weeks.
The Liberian unit had disconnected the interconnection on the trunk network between the two firms on May 18.
South Africa-based MTN Group, the parent company, said yesterday that it had disconnected Comium for failing to pay interconnection fees for more than a year.
MTN Liberia, trading under the Lonestar Cell brand, has a market share of 54 percent in Liberia. The firm said it would engage the Liberian telecoms regulator to find a resolution.
“Lonestar Cell MTN remains committed to engage with the LTA to establish the meaning and terms of the suspension with a view to resolving the impasse,” it said.
Paul Norman, the group chief human resources and corporate affairs officer, said that Comium owed in excess of $500 000 (R4.2 million).
“On May 22, 2012 they paid $200 000 towards their debt, with a post-dated check for an additional $100 000 that is maturing (today). Further, Comium has made arrangements to pay the balance in instalments,” Norman said.
MTN inherited its Liberia operations when it bought Investcom 15 years ago. It holds more than half of the market share. Four other operators share the balance.
MTN has just more than 1 million Liberian subscribers.
Spiwe Chireka, a telecoms analyst, said Liberia was a tiny market in the MTN stable although it did contribute to group revenue.
“This just shows what a challenging business environment Africa is,” she added.
The stay order is a reprieve for MTN, which is battling attacks on various fronts over allegations that it acted improperly in obtaining its licence to operate in Iran.
The Hawks, a special investigative unit of the SAPS, confirmed yesterday that it was acting on a complaint filed by the DA.
It would investigate allegations that MTN Irancell had obtained its telecoms licence in Iran via corrupt and improper methods.
MTN told the Sapa news agency that it would co-operate fully with the Hawks.
The run-in with the Liberian regulator is not the first.
In January, the LTA slapped a fine of $500 000 on MTN Liberia, formerly Lonestar Communications, for “negligence and omission on the part of the Lonestar management” which led to an outage on the MTN network on November 7 last year.
Following an investigation of two months, the LTA ordered MTN to pay the fine within a week and give all its subscribers four hours of free call time on a day to be determined by the regulator.
MTN said the outage was caused by an “unprecedented volume of calls at a base station provisioned to handle traffic in parts of the Monrovia network coverage area”.
Norman said: “Lonestar Cell MTN is still in negotiations with the regulator and the Ministry of Justice to try and find an amicable solution on this issue.”
Meanwhile, MTN’s former chief executive, Phuthuma Nhleko, has reiterated no bribes were paid in acquiring an operating licence in Iran as the Hawks announced closer scrutiny of allegations of corruption by the cellular giant.
“I repeat that during my tenure as the chief executive of MTN no bribes were approved or paid with my consent or the consent of the MTN Group. Further, neither the MTN Group nor I were in a position to influence or fetter the decisions and foreign policy of the South African government, and we did not do so,” Nhleko said.
He said Turkcell was using the media to publish far-fetched allegations based on contradictory and inconsistent evidence, given on deposition in the US by disgruntled former employee Chris Kilowan.
Nhleko said the allegations were being made “inexplicably for the first time in almost seven years” after the licence was issued in Iran. The allegations were “entirely without substance and have been made recklessly and irresponsibly by an aggrieved competitor”.
He added: “The allegation that the MTN Group was pervaded by a culture of ‘extensive corruption’ is scurrilous and untrue. I remain willing to assist MTN and South African law enforcement agencies in rebutting the false claims and allegations made by Turkcell.”
The Hawks are investigating the allegations.
On the JSE yesterday, MTN added 0.66 percent to R135.29.