Two of Africa’s biggest mobile phone operators, MTN Group and Airtel Africa, have announced an agreement to share their network infrastructure in Nigeria and Uganda.
The companies said in separate statements on Wednesday that the deal aims to reduce investment costs while simultaneously expanding service coverage in the two countries.
Mobile phone companies across Africa are experiencing a sustained increase in demand for digital and financial services. However, building and maintaining the necessary infrastructure, particularly for fast 5G connections, is expensive.
MTN and Airtel also stated that they would explore similar opportunities for collaboration in other African markets, including Congo-Brazzaville, Rwanda, and Zambia.
The potential deals under consideration include sharing radio access networks, which represent a significant portion of the cost of deploying and operating mobile networks.
They will also explore commercial and technical agreements for sharing fibre optic infrastructure, and potentially the joint construction of fibre networks if required.
Both companies emphasised that this agreement does not prevent them from collaborating with other operators in any of the markets involved.
Commenting on the agreement, MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita said in a statement that the company is driven by the vision of providing digital solutions that advance Africa’s progress.
“We continue to see strong structural demand for digital and financial services across our markets. To meet this demand, we continue to invest in coverage and capacity to ensure high-quality connectivity for our customers,” Mr. Mupita said. “That said, there are opportunities within regulatory frameworks for sharing resources to drive higher efficiencies and improve returns.”
Airtel Africa Chief Executive Officer Sunil Taldar said the agreement would help avoid the duplication of expensive infrastructure.
He added that sharing infrastructure allows operators to extend their network coverage more rapidly, particularly in rural or less densely populated areas where it might not be economically viable for each company to build separate networks.
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