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South Africa’s Vodacom is in talks with French telecoms firm Orange for potential infrastructure deals in Africa, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
The discussions include potential agreements that could lower connectivity costs on the continent, the news agency said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The potential deals in overlapping markets including Egypt and Congo involve sharing infrastructure and working together to establish rural connectivity, according to the report.
Vodacom is also in discussions with other mobile operators and investors in markets that it operates in.
“Our aim is to potentially alleviate the costs of rollout and rural connectivity, helping to address costs to communicate and narrow the digital divide,” a source from Vodacom told the news agency.
No final agreements have been reached so far. France’s Orange SA also declined to comment on specific discussions, although it said that “sharing certain network infrastructure with other operators in such large territories makes sense.”
The two companies have been looking to boost their presence in Africa.
(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
