Cell C: Cellular operator’s survival at stake

TAKEOVERS and other deals involving larger competitors were putting Cell C’s survival at risk, South Africa’s third-largest wireless operator said on Friday. Vodacom Group agreed to buy internet provider Neotel from India’s Tata Communications in May, while Telkom, Africa’s biggest fixed-line operator, said in March that it was in talks with MTN Group about sharing mobile networks. “You are going to go back to where we started 20 years ago” if the deals won regulatory approval, Cell C chief executive Jose Dos Santos told MPs in Cape Town last week. “There is a very strong possibility that Cell C won’t survive. We need to put remedies to allow small players to stay in the game.” MTN and Vodacom jointly control about 80 percent of South Africa’s mobile communications market. Mobile phone subscriptions in the country totalled 71.9 million at the end of last year, an increase of 7.7 percent from the year before, the company said. – Bloomberg