The potential deal would reduce the losses of Telkom’s mobile business, and falls in line with CEO Sipho Maseko’s plan to lower expenses in the company’s mobile business by at least 50%.
Under the agreement, MTN would gain access to Telkom’s 2300MHz LTE network.
The companies confirmed that the potential deal may also include bilateral roaming, allowing MTN to roam on Telkom towers.
The news follows rumours several months ago that the two companies were discussing a network-sharing agreement.
In February this year, MTN began legal processes against the South African regulator over planned rate cuts. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) announced earlier this year that it was halving the fees mobile companies can charge rival players to use their networks to 20 cents per minute per call.
