Buying the state owned telco not a foregone conclusion
MTN South Africa is in talks to buy the entire issued share capital of partially South Africa’s state owned Telkom, in return for shares or a combination of cash and shares in MTN. If the deal goes through, this means MTN must buy out the government as it holds a 40 percent stake in Telkom, while the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) owns a further 14 percent of Telkom’s equity.
Early days
The companies said the discussions are at an early stage, and there was no certainty that the transaction would be completed. “The transaction, if concluded, may have a material effect on the price of the company’s securities. Accordingly, shareholders are advised to exercise caution when dealing with the company’s securities until a further announcement is made,” said an official statement. In its last results, MTN announced that it had left Yemen and Syria to simplify its portfolio and focus on a Pan-African strategy under its Ambition 2025 plan.
Performance
In other news, the independent Mobile Network Quality Report has found that telecommunications giant MTN still has the best mobile network in South Africa. MTN achieved a network quality score of 9.75 during the second quarter of 2022, which is attributed to its R50-billion (€2.9 billion) network investment in the last five years, which extended coverage, improved network quality and increased speeds.
Report
The second quarter 2022 Mobile Network Quality Report showed Vodacom in second place with a score of 6.38, followed by Telkom with a score of 4.96, Cell C with 4.29 and Rain with 3.87. MTN also had the highest average download speed at 79.27 Mb/s, followed by Vodacom with a speed of 44.24 Mb/s, Telkom at 30.79 Mb/s, Cell C with 24.04 Mb/s and Rain with 14.55 Mb/s.
Downloads up
Overall, South Africa had an average mobile download speed of 49.92 Mb/s and an average upload speed of 14.84 Mb/s. “Over the last year, there has been a big network performance improvement for all operators. The average download speed in South Africa increased by 12 Mb/s as a result of the increased availability of fourth-generation and fifth-generation access across South Africa,” said MyBroadband Insights director Marius Hollenbach.
MTN best netwok in SA
The report is based on 325 863 speed tests performed by 9 386 MyBroadband Speed Test App users across South Africa between April 1 and June 30. “MyBroadband Insights’ network performance data is in line with other independent network quality research, which also confirmed that MTN has the best network in South Africa,” said Hollenbach.