{"id":73446,"date":"2014-11-14T09:49:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T07:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=73446"},"modified":"2014-11-14T12:18:25","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T10:18:25","slug":"mtn-raises-concern-over-vodacom-neotel-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/73446\/mtn-raises-concern-over-vodacom-neotel-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN raises concern over Vodacom-Neotel deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

MTN has contacted communications regulator Icasa and the Competition Commission<\/span> to express its concerns about a R7 billion merger deal between rival mobile operator, Vodacom, and fixed line player, Neotel.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg reported that MTN passed on its concerns relating to spectrum, citing MTN regulatory affairs manager, Graham de Vries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMTN can confirm that it has raised certain concerns with the Competition Commission and Icasa regarding the proposed transaction, MTN will not comment further on this matter,” the mobile operator said in a statement.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Neotel and Vodacom confirmed at the end of September 2013, that they had entered into exclusive discussions regarding a potential acquisition of 100% of the shares of Neotel by Vodacom SA.<\/p>\n

The combined entity would be able to use the radio spectrum currently assigned to Neotel more effectively, the two companies said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis spectrum will enable Vodacom to accelerate the roll-out of LTE (4G) services, providing high speed, high quality wireless connectivity to a greater proportion of the South African population,\u201d Vodacom said.<\/p>\n

Back in March, MTN questioned the\u00a0transferability\u00a0of spectrum between the two companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not\u00a0acceptable\u00a0as far as we understand,\u201d said\u00a0Sifiso Dabengwa, group chief executive and president of MTN, speaking at the\u00a0company\u2019s\u00a0results presentation at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the rule or law that must be followed,\u201d Dabengwa asked, adding: \u201cFor us to get in the way to block it is not the right way to do it. \u201c<\/p>\n

He said, however, that there should be a law around the transfer of spectrum.<\/p>\n

In May, Cell C said it would oppose Vodacom\u2019s proposed acquisition of Neotel upon submission to the Competition Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe oppose any deal that is likely to lessen competition in the market and it is our view that entrenching the dominance of an already dominant player will not be in the interest of the industry, the consumer, or the wider South African economy,\u201d said Cell C CEO, Jose Dos Santos.<\/p>\n

More on Vodacom and Neotel<\/h3>\n

MTN wades into Vodacom Neotel deal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom-Neotel details \u201cweeks away\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Neotel spectrum belongs to the state<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C will oppose Vodacom Neotel deal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MTN has contacted communications regulator Icasa, and the Competition Commission, to express its concerns about a R7 billion merger deal between Vodacom Neotel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":43700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,28,261,27],"class_list":["post-73446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-neotel","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73446"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73500,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73446\/revisions\/73500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}