MTN to buy MultiChoice fibre business

Johannesburg - Africa’s biggest telecommunications company MTN has sealed a deal to acquire MultiChoice’s fibre network subsidiary.

Smart Village is wholly owned by MultiChoice and operates fibre networks in gated communities.

Over 29 000 residential homes and stands in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal are connected to Smart Village technology.

And MTN said its acquisition of Smart Village - which still needs to be approved by competition authorities - will give it a presence in more gated estates, apartment blocks, business parks and shopping malls in areas such as Waterfall and Midstream Estates.

“The acquisition of Smart Village provides MTN with the opportunity to cement its market leadership in the FTTH (fibre to the home) space and to make inroads in the enterprise sector,” said Mteto Nyati, chief executive officer at MTN South Africa, in a statement.

“In the enterprise space, the deal will give MTN Business the ability to provide wholesale access to 4,228 enterprises passed by Smart Village, while ensuring substantial savings for MTN and its customers as traffic will be routed via MTN’s backhaul infrastructure,” said Nyati.

A statement from MTN further revealed that MultiChoice look after existing Smart Village customers until the deal is ratified.

Mark Rayner, chief operating officer for MultiChoice South Africa, also outlined why Smart Village is being sold.

“Smart Village is a network infrastructure business which aligns more closely to MTN’s telecommunications infrastructure business. Our focus at MultiChoice is to deliver consumer-facing services across multiple platforms. This deal enables us to sharpen our focus on our core business,” said Rayner in a statement.

Fibre broadband race

Telecom providers and infrastructure players are in a race to roll out fibre broadband in South Africa.

Telkom has said that one million homes will have access to its fibre network by 2018.

Meanwhile, smaller players such as Vumatel aim connecting 100 000 homes by 2016.

The explosion in fibre connections, which offer faster download speeds than ADSL, has also resulted in content players launching a variety of video on demand offerings.

Companies such as ShowMax from Naspers and ONTAPtv.com from Hong Kong’s PCCW have launched streaming services this year.

In addition, MTN said it has also ramped up its FTTH network roll-out in areas such as Parkmore, Lonehill and Sandhurst in Johannesburg.