MTN, are they or are they not in the Loop?

MTN, are they or are they not in the Loop? A business called Loop, an Indian Business. This is where the rumour came from: MTN in talks to buy stake in Loop. The long and the short of it is that MTN denied that they were looking to get in on the Loop. The stock closed down nearly three percent to 10444, and traded over 9 million shares, about 1.8 million shares more than the "usual". I guess that makes that easy, we don't even have to take a closer look at the loop. I must admit, our first reaction back at HQ (the office) was if they were buying this business, please let it not be anything remotely like Multi-Links.



Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I mean ICASA hearings, the fellows over at Vodacom were suggesting that they would go to court to stop what Vodacom thinks are a cut in the interconnect rate too quickly. Let's face it, ICASA are all over the show, a dog with no tail, no sense of direction, in the words of that crazy band The Pale. There is definite government pressure from minister Siphiwe Nyanda (who is not watching any football games with Zwelinzima Vavi) who I guess gave the old dog ICASA some teeth. Check out the TechCentral article about yesterday's proceedings Vodacom comes out firing at Icasa hearings.



So we definitely have interconnect fees that consumers and business feel are "too high", and seemingly money for jam for the networks. That is of course if you are the consumer and business, in this opinion piece we bat for shareholders and their best interests. The network infrastructure is maintained and has been built by Vodacom and MTN, even if ICASA granted a licence to both mobile operators. Without knowing a great deal about ICASA, what value do they actually add to the mobile companies? Not fair, they are supposed to protect the existing licences. But as per their website, why lump all of these sectors with one body? Read: "ICASA's mandate is spelled out the Electronic Communications Act for the licensing and regulation of electronic communications and broadcasting services, and by the Postal Services Act for the regulation of the postal sector." That sounds a little like the Post and Telecommunication corporation and in fact was. So 1990.