Photo by: Duane Daws
Mobile network giant Vodacom has won a small victory in its R7-billion bid to take over fixed-line operator Neotel.
It was on Wednesday granted access by the Competition Tribunal in Pretoria to confidential documents used to inform the Competition Commission's investigation into the merger.
The documents were submitted to the commission by third parties‚ some of which had not given permission for the information to be released to Vodacom and Neotel.
Vodacom plans to acquire all of Neotel's shares.
The merger was conditionally approved by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) last month and soon after that the Competition Commission recommended to the tribunal that the deal be approved with certain conditions.
Steven Ambrose‚ CE of technology research firm Strategy Worx‚ said Vodacom and Neotel may have applied for the third-party submissions in order to prepare for the upcoming tribunal hearing‚ in which the parties may challenge conditional aspects of the merger.
Among the conditions recommended by the commission is a two-year restriction on Vodacom's access to Neotel's radio frequency spectrum.
In the commission's report on the proposed merger it found that “part of Vodacom's primary interest in acquiring Neotel relates to the latter's spectrum allocation”.
“The sooner [Vodacom] gets access to the spectrum‚ the sooner [it] will be able to roll out more advanced‚ more high-speed‚ data products‚” Ambrose said.
But Vodacom spokesperson Richard Boorman said the merging parties do not intend to challenge the commission’s recommended conditions.
The two-year waiting period is intended to give policy makers an opportunity to address the spectrum challenges in the industry‚ the commission said in a statement on its recommendation last month.
Fourteen respondents were listed in the application for the confidential documents‚ including the commission‚ the State Information Technology Agency‚ telecommunications operator Vox Telecom‚ T-Systems International‚ an information and communication technology company that is part of the Deutsche Telekom group of companies‚ and the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable Sytem (Eassy)‚ the project deploying a fibre-optic undersea cable system along Africa's east and south coast.
Harmony Gold mining company and the Road Accident Fund were also listed.
None of the respondents opposed the application.
The tribunal gave Vodacom and Neotel access to the documents subject to confidentiality undertakings.
The Competition Tribunal is scheduled to hear Vodacom and Neotel's case for the merger in November and December.