A PYMNTS Company

South Africa: ICASA hears complaints about telecom merger

By  |  January 18, 2015
South Africa: ICASA hears complaints about telecom merger

Two different government regulators are listening to concerns about the hotly contested $606 million merger proposal of two of South Africa’s telecommunications companies. Vodacom is seeking to buy out Neotel and create the largest mobile phone company in South Africa. Due to regulations concerning telecommunication frequencies, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and Competition Commission (CC) are both investigating the implications of the proposed merger. ICASA was hearing complaints last week from telecommunication rivals CellC, MTN and Telkom. CellC has been the most outspoken claiming that the merger will form a company that has the potential to kill its competition.

    Get the Full Story

    Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.

    yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.

    By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

    MTN took the more moderate stance of saying that if the merger is approved, there should be restrictions. Currently, telecommunication frequencies are not tradeable in South Africa and as the merger stands, Vodacom would gain control of Neotel’s frequencies. MTN requests that for the merger to be approved, all of Neotel controlled frequencies should be reverted to ICASA which would then reassign the frequencies on an equitable basis.

    We’d love to be your preferred source for news.

    Please add us to your preferred sources list so our news, data and interviews show up in your feed. Thanks!

    Add as Preferred Source

    Vodacom is claiming that it will use the merger to expand into fiber optic broadband, which if the company moves into a new market there is a higher likelihood of the merger being approved since it would provide more competition for Telkom dominated fixed line broadband market.

    Full Content: Business Day Live

    Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.