Vodacom and Orange are reportedly in talks to share infrastructure in Africa to cut network costs and deploy coverage in remote locations.
Bloomberg reported, the companies are in talks to share infrastructure in Egypt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Vodacom said in a statement to the news agency that a partnership between the operators could include network sharing and joint deployment in hard to reach rural locations. This would “potentially alleviate costs” and “narrow the digital divide”.
An Orange spokesperson told Developing Telecoms it does not reply to market speculation, and Vodacom have yet to reply to our questions.
Africa has been highlihted as a bright spot for the Orange Group with consecutive quarters of revenue growth. In its recent Q1 2024 results Orange reported double-digit revenue boosts in its Middle East and African operation. Revenue grew 11% to €1.8 billion year-on-year.
Meanwhile, Vodacom revealed in its results net income dipped slightly by 2.8% to ZAR 16.3 billion, despite revenue being up by 26% to ZAR 150.6 billion.