R2.5bn Ivory Coast upgrade

MTN plans to spend more than R2.5-billion upgrading its network in Ivory Coast, the head of the West African nation's subsidiary said.

MTN is the No2 operator in Ivory Coast - French-speaking West Africa's largest economy - behind France's Orange.

"We want to be first," regional boss Wim Vanhelleputte said yesterday at the inauguration of a new data centre in the commercial capital Abidjan.

"Today we have a market share of 37%.

"We are aiming to go to at least 40%, and that will be possible through this kind of investment," he said.

Vanhelleputte said MTN was spending 40-billion CFA francs this year to renew, modernise and extend its Ivory Coast network, and planned similar investments in each of the next two years.

The company is particularly seeking to meet growing demand for fast data services.

"MTN has 1000km of fibre optics in Abidjan," Vanhelleputte said.

Ivory Coast has about 19million mobile phone subscribers out of a total estimated population of some 24million.

In addition to Orange and MTN, Libya's Green, Etisalat's Moov and Koz, part of Lebanon-based Comium, also operate in the country.

Domestically owned Cafe Mobile and Abu Dhabi-based Warid Telecom both hold unused permits.