Telecoms operators push for infrastructure sharing

The Association of Comms & Technology (ACT) is preparing an application to the competition authorities to allow telecoms companies to share infrastructure, especially in underserviced and rural areas.

ACT represents Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Liquid and Rain.

Infrastructure sharing is crucial as it, among other things, reduces capital expenditure, operational costs and enables faster deployment. In some areas with low population density, companies find it financial unviable to deploy network infrastructure.

Vodacom and MTN are investing billions of rand in infrastructure, followed by Telkom, while Cell C long ago sold its base stations and towers opting to piggyback on its competitors.

“The purpose is not to lessen competition in retail markets, but to create regulatory certainty and room for information sharing to allow for collaboration on passive and selected active infrastructure such as towers, masts, backhaul and, where appropriate, certain radio access elements in locations where duplicating networks is commercially unviable,” Nomvuyiso Batyi, CEO of ACT, said in an interview.

She said in many deep rural and low-density communities, the economics simply do not sustain parallel infrastructure, resulting in persistent coverage gaps and poor-quality connectivity. “The proposed exemption would allow operators, within defined parameters and transparency safeguards, to co-ordinate deployment without contravening competition law,” Batyi said.

The initiative is public-interest driven and aligned with universal service objectives, rural inclusion and government’s digital economy priorities, she said. It is also responsive to the ongoing 2G and 3G migration, which requires network upgrades and rationalisation of legacy infrastructure often concentrated in these same areas.

“This is not a blanket permission to collaborate, but a targeted, time-bound mechanism designed to unlock investment where market forces alone have not delivered.”

Batyi said network sharing is one of the main projects of ACT this year. Another one is the phasing out of 2G & 3G device sales as the industry prepares to shut down the networks as per government directives to free high demand spectrum.

She said ACT is working with the industry regulator, the department of communications and digital services as well as the department of trade, industry and competition. “If we are serious in ensuring no one is left behind, there has to be a process of phasing out 2G and 3G handsets imports and sales. But we don’t want the confusion created by digital migration hence we don’t want to announce dates on when those handsets should stop being sold.”

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