Telkom, MTN continue roaming talks

Johannesburg - Phone companies Telkom [JSE:TKG] and MTN [JSE:MTN] South Africa have not yet concluded discussions regarding a potential extension of their existing roaming agreement.

This is according to a cautionary announcement made by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed Telkom on Thursday.

Discussions between the companies have been ongoing for around a year as Telkom and MTN signed Heads of Agreement (HoA) in March 2014 that outlined intentions to conclude network sharing and roaming agreements.

Apart from bilateral roaming, discussions are also taking place about the outsourcing of the operation of Telkom’s radio access network to MTN.

Wednesday’s cautionary announcement from Telkom follows a similar notice issued by the company on December 31 2014.

“Shareholders are further advised that Telkom and MTN South Africa remain in discussions regarding the potential extension of their existing roaming agreement to include bilateral roaming and outsourcing of the operation of Telkom’s radio access network, which if successfully concluded may have a material effect on the price of Telkom’s securities,” said Telkom.

“The parties will update shareholders as soon as they receive the appropriate legal and regulatory approvals,” the company added.

Other telecom deals

The Telkom-MTN deal is not the only possible high-profile telecoms tie-up on the cards in SA this year.

Vodacom is undergoing regulatory approvals in its bid to buy Neotel for R7bn.

Vodacom has been eyeing Neotel’s fixed line network plus additional spectrum to roll-out more high-speed LTE or 4G broadband services.

However, rival telecom operators such as Cell C and MTN had an opportunity to explain their opposition to the deal at Icasa hearings in Johannesburg last month.

Meanwhile, Telkom is also undergoing regulatory approvals to buy African cloud computing firm Business Connexion Group (BCG) for R2.7bn.