Etisalat Nigeria sues MTN

Telecoms giant MTN is facing legal action over its plans to buy Visafone Communications.

Lagos - Emirates Telecommunications is suing Nigeria competitor MTN over plans by Africa’s biggest wireless company to buy local Internet provider Visafone Communications.

The lawsuit centres on MTN’s potential use of Visafone’s 800 megahertz of spectrum, Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat’s Nigeria unit said in an emailed statement on Monday. “Not to challenge will entrench the dominance of MTN in the data services market,” the company said.

Chris Maroleng, a spokesman for Johannesburg-based MTN, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tony Ojobo, a spokesman for the Nigerian Communications Commission, the regulator that approved the Visafone deal, didn’t answer two phone calls or respond to a text message requesting comment.

In 2013, the NCC said MTN, the biggest mobile-phone company in Nigeria, had become dominant in the mobile-voice market. The South African company is also in talks with the regulator to settle a $3.9 billion fine for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered subscribers last year.

MTN had 62.5 million Nigerian subscribers as of the end of September, according to the NCC’s website. Globacom and Airtel Nigeria had about 31 million each, while Etisalat was the country’s fourth-biggest operator with 23 million customers.

MTN shares declined 0.8 percent to R140 as of 11.40am in Johannesburg, valuing the company at R258 billion.

BLOOMBERG