MTN is watching the sale of assets of Transnet`s telecommunications unit Transtel, but would first see what exactly is being sold and if it made business sense, says MTN SA MD Maanda Manyatshe.
Transnet has indicated Transtel might not be sold in its entirety, and Manyatshe suggested the mobile operator would take a wait-and-see approach before making a possible move to acquire any of Transtel`s assets.
He was referring to recent statements by the state-owned transport group that it was looking at selling off non-core assets as part of a restructure to leave it eventually with three business divisions: railways, harbours and pipelines.
"We will have to see exactly what of Transtel they are going to sell," Manyatshe told ITWeb following his media presentation in Cape Town yesterday.
According to Transnet, the sale of its telecommunications unit will not include the 15% stake in the second national operator (SNO), which is owned directly by Transnet and of which only certain assets will be sold.
Manyatshe said the same considerations were being applied by MTN to the issue of self-provisioning and what kind of interest it has in the SNO.
"Our view is that those issues have to bring some kind of business value to MTN, rather than our decisions being based on sentiment," he said.
Among other issues covered during Manyatshe`s presentation was the need to have a common objective view of measuring the number of subscribers in the country.
"It does not make sense that out of a total population of about 45 million people, 36 million have SIM cards. There has to be a lot of double counting," he said.
MTN`s main rival Vodacom announced this week that it has 23 million subscribers, Cell C claims to have three million and MTN has around 10 million.
Manyatshe also touched on the issue of the Regulations for the Interception and Monitoring of Communications Act that is due to come into effect from 1 July. The Act requires the cellular operators to register all their subscribers over a 12-month period from that date.
"It will be a logistical nightmare and it will cost MTN around R100 million to implement. We cannot pass this cost onto our customers or anyone else," he said.
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