Telecommunications giant MTN and pan-African telecommunications group Liquid Telecom South Africa have entered into a new deal to offer South African consumers a fourth-generation (4G) roaming service.
This follows Liquid’s December announcement that it would establish a multibillion-rand 4G network in South Africa, offering wholesale roaming services on its network from early 2019, with MTN as the first customer.
“With MTN as a customer, we have an opportunity to use our existing spectrum assets, so more people than ever will have access to fast and reliable mobile Internet – [as well as] across Liquid Telecom’s network nationwide for the first time,” says Liquid Telecom South Africa CEO Reshaad Sha.
He explains that the 4G network, using 1 800 MHz spectrum, is capable of meeting the needs of the most demanding users across the country.
“This builds on our vision to give everyone the right to be connected by bringing high-speed broadband connectivity to all. The benefits are massive, particularly for organisations keen to fully embrace digital transformation to improve productivity, customer service and performance.”
“This sort of infrastructure sharing deal is good for the industry, as it reduces the need for excessively high capital investment, and it is also good for customers, who immediately benefit from even greater access to fast and reliable mobile data,” adds MTN South Africa CEO Godfrey Motsa.
The agreement forms part of Liquid’s ‘Building Africa’s Digital Future” strategy.
Liquid has been investing heavily across Africa, recently completing its ‘Cape to Cairo’ network, the first direct land-based terrestrial fibre communication link between Cape Town, in South Africa, and Cairo, in Egypt.