Telkom has signed an extensive roaming agreement with Vodacom to roam on its 2G, 3G, and 4G networks in South Africa.
“Shareholders are advised that Vodacom South Africa and Telkom have concluded a long-term, multi-billion-rand agreement whereby Telkom will obtain roaming and facilities leasing services from Vodacom,” said Vodacom.
The terms of the agreement will allow Telkom customers to roam on Vodacom’s 2G, 3G, and 4G networks with full effect from June 2019. This will include seamless handover technology.
The deal follows Cell C signing a new roaming deal with MTN in May to roam on its 3G and 4G networks. Cell C previously only roamed on Vodacom’s network, and did not receive seamless handover technology.
With the implementation of the new deal, Cell C’s 4G population coverage will increase from 33% to 80%, via the MTN network, and it will receive seamless handover technology.
Vodacom told MyBroadband its current roaming agreement with Cell C to use its 2G and 3G networks in certain areas remains in place for at least another two years.
Telkom-MTN deal ending
Telkom stated that as a result of the new roaming agreement with Vodacom – which will start on 1 December 2018 – its roaming deal with MTN will expire in June 2019.
“Telkom will conduct a phased transition from the current roaming agreement, which will be concluded by the end of the contract period,” said Telkom.
Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said the company was extremely pleased with Telkom working with Vodacom on the agreement.
“By switching its roaming agreement to Vodacom, Telkom will have access to South Africa’s best network with the country’s widest population coverage,” said Joosub.
“This partnership between the country’s fastest growing networks will also result in reduced network deployment costs for Telkom and cost savings for Vodacom, ultimately contributing to the reduction of data prices in South Africa.”
Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said the seamless handover and 4G technology are new additions to Telkom’s roaming agreement which will “improve the customer experience on the Telkom network”.