MTN is active in over 20 countries including Asian countries like Syria, with one-third of company revenue generated in Nigeria, where it held about 35 percent market share in 2016,[5] and 289.1 million subscribers in December 2022.[6]
The company was founded in 1994 as M-Cell with assistance from the South African government.[7] In 1995, it replaced its then CEO, John Beck, with Robert (Bob) Chaphe and founder Leena Jaitley.[8] In 2001, the company reported that its controlling shareholder was Johnnic Holdings, and the chairperson was Irene Charnley.[9] In 2002, Phuthuma Nhleko became the CEO,[10] replacing then-CEO Paul Edwards, who had invested in expansion to Nigeria.[11]
In May 2008, Bharti Airtel, an India-based telecommunications company, explored the possibility of buying MTN Group.[13]Reliance Communications was also in talks with MTN for a "potential combination of their businesses".[14][15] In July, the two companies ended discussions regarding the merger.[16]
In June 2008, MTN Group agreed to purchase Verizon Business South Africa, which was a provider of data services to customers in South Africa and four other African countries.[17] The acquisition was completed on 28 February 2009.[18]
On 26 June 2009, MTN Group's subsidiary merged with Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS), a subsidiary of Belgacom.[19] The combined subsidiary functioned as the international gateway for carrier services of MTN.[20]
In October 2012, MTN announced a partnership with Afrihost to provide DSL Broadband services in Africa.[21][22]
In November 2012, South African holding companyShanduka Group acquired a minority stake in MTN Group's Nigeria business for $335 million.[23]
MTN mast in Kaduna State
In 2014, the company sold its tower portfolios in Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Zambia and Rwanda to IHS Towers.[24] That year, MTN was named to the 2014 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand rankings and named the Most Admired and Most Valuable Brand in Africa,[25] retaining the latter ranking in 2015.[25] IHS Towers later acquired MTN South Africa’s towers, in 2022.[26]
In March 2016, the company appointed Rob Shuter as CEO,[27] who was succeeded on 1 September 2020 by Ralph Mupita.[28]
In May 2023, in support of the company's "Ambition 2025" plan to structurally separate its fibre business; MTN rebranded subsidiary MTN GlobalConnect as Bayobab, operating as Bayobab Fibre and Bayobab Communication.[29] On March 14, 2024, several undersea cables were cut, disrupting service for the Africa Coast to Europe.[30] Bayobab repaired the disabled ACE and WASC lines during the following week.[31]
On 31 May 2018, MTN Ghana launched its initial public offering (IPO).[32] The IPO closed on 31 July 2019. A total of up to 4,637,394,533 ordinary shares of MTN Ghana, representing 35% of its equity was offered to qualifying applicants. This was part of the agreement between MTN Ghana and Ghana's National Communications Authority (NCA) in November, 2015 for MTN Ghana to deploy 4G LTE mobile services to its customers in Ghana.[33] Among other methods of payments, MTN mobile money was included as a payment option for the MTN share offer subscription. This was the first time mobile money had been used as a payment method in an IPO.[34] The current CEO of MTN Ghana is Mr. Selorm Adadevoh.[35]
MTN Shuts Down Stores
On 23 February 2017, Nigerian protestors attacked a MTN office in Abuja, Nigeria as a counterattack due to violence targeted against Nigerians in South Africa.[36][37]
In September 2019 MTN began closing stores in Nigeria and some of their stores in Johannesburg, South Africa due to rioting, looting, and attacks on some of their facilities.[38][39][40][41][42][43]
Geoffrey Onyeama the Nigerian Foreign Minister stated at a press briefing on 4 September 2019, that MTN group along with Shoprite, stated that the targeted South African stores in Nigeria are "subsidiaries that are owned by Nigerians." And that "the property owned by Nigerians within Nigeria and the people working there are Nigerians."[44]
Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's Minister of Information and Culture, reported that some of the South African companies that were attacked in Nigeria have Nigerian investors owning significant amounts of stakes, and Nigerian employees.[45][46]
MTN has stated that they will continue to do business in Nigeria.[47][48]
Services
In March 2019 MTN launched a WhatsApp channel to let its customers buy airtime and data bundles through the messaging app.[49] Customers can also check their balances and store their credit or debit cards in the app for future purchases. The service is provided by another South African company, Clickatell.[50]
In the same year, MTN launched a communication platform ayoba.[51]
Cyprus branch re-branding
MTN sold its Cyprus branch to Monaco Telecom for €260 million in July 2018.[52] It was later re-branded as Epic in June 2019.[53][54]
In August 2020, MTN decided to sell its shares in Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen, and to divest its 49% minority holding in Irancell over time. The company's decision was based on the fact that their assets in the Middle East contributed less than 4% to group earnings in the first half of the year.[56] MTN Group has transferred its majority 82.8% shareholding in MTN Yemen to Emerald International Investment, thereby exiting the market.[57]
Sale of stake in Jumia
On 30 October 2020, MTN made public the sale of their shares in the e-commerce brand Jumia. The sale was worth 142.31 million dollars.[58]
MTN Mastercard Collaboration
In February 2021, the MTN Group partnered with Mastercard to ensure safe and secure global e-commerce payments of their customer base in 16 African countries. A Mastercard virtual payment platform, that is linked to MTN MoMo (Mobile Money) wallets makes this possible.[59]
Mobile Money spin-off
In March 2021, MTN CEO Ralph Mupita announced during the company's annual results call that the group was now considering spinning off its mobile money activities. "We see a separation and carve out of our fintech business as something that we have to do”.[60] In April 2021, he estimated the value of the group's mobile money arm to at least US$5 to 6 billion.[61]
MTN South Africa provides GSM, UMTS, HSPA+ (21.1Mbit/s), HSUPA (42 Mbit/s, 2100MHz), VOIP, 3G, 4G, LTE and 5G services.[62] On 1 December 2011, MTN became the second cellular provider to introduce 4G and LTE in South Africa[63] They were also the first network operator in South Africa to launch a live public 5G network available in Johannesburg and Cape Town on 30 June 2020.[64][65][66][67]
Coverage
MTN acquired Investcom, mainly under the Areeba and Spacetel brands.[68]
Supersonic provides Fibre through most Service Providers including OpenServe and Vumatel.[77] SuperSonic also offers “Air Fibre”, a 5G Based Mobile data service introduced in February 2021.[78][79][80]
In July 2021, they were fourth from the bottom of a list of 16 big ISP's that were rated.[81]
From 2013 till date, its foundation - MTN Foundation- has sponsored Nigerian Students with financial and educational grants well over ₦2.5 billion. It gave over 1,000 students across 2 geo-political zones in Nigeria ₦300,000 grant each in October, 2024.[85][86]
Controversies
Iran
MTN has been criticised for its activities in Iran's telecommunications sector. MTN has a 49 percent stake in government-controlled MTN Irancell, the second-largest mobile phone operator in Iran, and 21 percent of MTN's subscriber base is from the country. In January 2012, the US-based advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) launched a campaign publicly calling for MTN to scale back its operations in Iran and end its business in the country. UANI alleges that MTN technology is "enabling the Iranian government to locate and track individual cellphone users which it says is a violation of users' human rights".[87]
In June 2012, Reuters and the BBC reported an allegation by Chris Kilowan, a former executive for the company in Iran, that MTN Group may have been complicit in securing American telecommunications technology from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems on behalf of Irancell, in violation of trade sanctions against Iran. Oracle, which owns Sun Microsystems, said that it was investigating and denied involvement, saying that it complies with US export laws. Hewlett-Packard issued a similar statement. MTN Group denied the allegations, saying that it complied with US sanctions against Iran.[88]
Turkcell court case
Turkey's Turkcell filed a $4.2 billion lawsuit in Washington, D.C., in 2012 alleging the company used bribery to win a mobile licence in Iran that was first awarded to Turkcell. The court delayed the case in October 2012 pending a US Supreme Court decision on the Alien Tort Statute, the US human rights law on which Turkcell's suit is based.[89] In May 2013, Turkcell dropped its multibillion-dollar US lawsuit against MTN Group, citing a US Supreme Court ruling that hurt its case. On 27 November 2013, Turkcell resumed in Johannesburg.[90][91]
In 2015, the Nigerian subsidiary of MTN was fined by the Government of Nigeria through the telecommunications regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for partial compliance of regulatory guidelines to Mobile Network Operators to disconnect from their network, all improperly registered Subscribers Identification Modules (SIM). The commission exercised section 20(1) of the Telephone Subscribers regulation (TSR) law on MTN, leading to a calculated fine of $5.2 billion, according to the constitution.
The compliance audit carried out by the NCC on MTN network revealed unregistered 5.2 million customers lines were not deactivated as directed. This led to the NCC fining MTN with the sum of $1000 for each unregistered SIM according to the Telephone Subscribers regulation (TSR) law, which amounted to $5.2bn.[92][93]
What followed was major resignations among the top echelon of the organization including the chief executive officer, Sifiso Dabengwa, the Head of Nigeria Operation, Micheal Ikpoki and the Head of Cooperate Affairs, Akinwale Goodluck being replaced with Phuthuma Nhleko, Ferdi Moolman and Amina Oyegbola as new chairman, managing director and Head of Corporate and Regulation respectively.[94]
The new management employed a diplomatic measure between the government of the Republic of South Africa and its Nigerian counterpart to ameliorate the burden of the liabilities from the fine. This action brought about the reduction of the liability to $3.2 billion.[95][96][97]
South Africa
In September 2021, MTN announced that it will close its zero-rated access to the popular social network Twitter. As of early 2022, MTN has had poor internet connection throughout the country; the cause is still unknown.
Telecommunications in Ghana include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Nigeria is Africa's largest ICT market, accounting for 82% of the continent's telecoms subscribers and 29% of internet usage. Globally, Nigeria ranks 11th in the absolute number of internet users and 7th in the absolute number of mobile phones.
Telecommunications infrastructure in South Africa provides modern and efficient service to urban areas, including cellular and internet services. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is the watchdog of the telecommunications in the country.
The Proximus Group is a provider of digital services and communication solutions operating in Belgium and international markets. In Belgium, the company offers its main products and services under the brands Proximus, Scarlet, and Mobile Vikings. The Group also operates in Luxembourg as Proximus Luxembourg SA, with the brandsTango and Telindus Luxembourg, and in the Netherlands as Telindus Netherlands. Internationally, activities are carried out by BICS and Telesign. Proximus Accelerators is the ecosystem of IT partners Be-Mobile, ClearMedia, Codit, Davinsi Labs, Proximus Spearit and Telindus.
Telkom SA SOC Limited is a South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider, operating in more than 38 countries across the African continent. Telkom is majority state-owned (55.3%) with the South African government owning 40.5% of Telkom, while another 14.8% is owned by another state-owned company - the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which is closely linked to the South African government.
Vodacom Group Limited is a South African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 130 million customers across Africa.
Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian multinational telecommunications company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, Airtel provides 5G, 4G and LTE Advanced services throughout India. Currently offered services include fixed-line broadband, and voice services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel had also rolled out its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology across all Indian telecom circles. It is the second largest mobile network operator in India and the second largest mobile network operator in the world. Airtel was named India's 2nd most valuable brand in the first ever Brandz ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc.
The Internet in South Africa, one of the most technologically resourced countries on the African continent, is expanding. The internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .za is managed and regulated by the .za Domain Name Authority (.ZADNA) and was granted to South Africa by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 1990. Over 60% of Internet traffic generated on the African continent originates from South Africa. As of 2020, 41.5 million people were Internet users.
MTN Uganda is the largest telecom company in Uganda, with 11.2 million subscribers, accounting for 55 percent market share, as of 30 June 2017. By 31 December 2019, its customer base had increased to 12.6 million customers. In March 2021, the Uganda Communications Commission estimated the number of MTN customers in Uganda at 15 million, out of 28.3 million mobile network subscribers, thereby attaining a 53 percent market share. In May 2024, MTNU registered her 20 millionth customer in the country.
Airtel Africa plc is a British company that provides telecommunications and mobile money services in 14 countries in Africa, primarily in East, Central and West Africa. Airtel Africa is majority owned by the Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel. Airtel Africa offers mobile voice and data services as well as mobile money services both nationally and internationally. Airtel Nigeria is the most profitable unit of Airtel Africa, due to its cheap data plans in Nigeria. As of March 2019, Airtel had over 99 million subscribers in the continent. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
3G mobile telephony was relatively slow to be adopted globally. In some instances, 3G networks do not use the same radio frequencies as 2G so mobile operators must build entirely new networks and license entirely new frequencies, especially so to achieve high data transmission rates. Other delays were due to the expenses of upgrading transmission hardware, especially for UMTS, whose deployment required the replacement of most broadcast towers. Due to these issues and difficulties with deployment, many carriers delayed acquisition of these updated capabilities.
Afrihost is a South African Internet Service Provider (ISP) providing a number of services, including ADSL broadband, fibre, fixed wireless, mobile services and web hosting. A proposed merger with Cool Ideas, another ISP, has been approved by regulators.
Jumia is a marketplace, logistics service and payment service, operating throughout Africa. The logistics service enables the delivery of packages through local partners while the payment services facilitate the payments of online transactions. It has partnered with more than 100,000 sellers and individuals.
IHS Towers is one of the largest independent owners, operators and developers of shared communications infrastructure in the world, with operations across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. It is the third largest independent multinational tower company in the world.
Selorm Adadevoh is a Ghanaian business and technology executive. He is the current chief commercial officer of the MTN Group, and former chief executive officer of MTN Ghana. He has worked as a telecommunication, business leader and consultant in Africa, the Caribbean, UK and US.
Rain or Rain (Pty) Ltd is a South African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services.
Ayoba is an African communication platform developed in South Africa. It is owned by Progressive Tech Holdings in Mauritius and managed by SIMFY Africa. Launched on May 4, 2019, as of April 2024, it has over 35 million active users.
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US$5.22 billion (2015)
US$13.762 billion (2015)
