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Update on Huge Telecom Proprietary Limited’s migration of mobile telephone services from Cell C to MTN
HUGE GROUP LIMITED
(Registration number 2006/023587/06)
Share code: HUG ISIN: ZAE000102042
(“Huge” or “the Group” or “the Company”)
UPDATE ON HUGE TELECOM PROPRIETARY LIMITED’S MIGRATION OF
MOBILE TELEPHONE SERVICES FROM THE CELL C MOBILE TELEPHONE
NETWORK TO THE MTN MOBILE TELEPHONE NETWORK
Huge Telecom Proprietary Limited (Huge Telecom) is a wholly owned
subsidiary company of Huge.
Huge Telecom is a successful mobile virtual network operator (MVNO)
providing GSM-based, wireless voice telephony services to corporate
organisations of any size and residential consumers who require a fixed
location telephony service. As an MVNO, Huge Telecom makes use of
GSM networks to provide its fixed telephone lines, which take the form
of a wireless GSM connection from a customer’s premises to the core of
a mobile telephone network. Huge Telecom’s principal service is
substituting fixed-line voice infrastructure, like that provided by a public
switched telephone network such as Telkom, or a VoIP operator, with
wireless GSM infrastructure.
Huge Telecom procures its access to GSM networks through Huge
Cellular Proprietary Limited (Huge Cellular), a black empowered
company associated with Huge. Huge Cellular procures access to
various GSM networks, including Cell C’s mobile telephone network,
MTN’s mobile telephone network and Telkom Mobile’s mobile telephone
network.
Huge Cellular has been involved in a long-standing dispute with Cell C
Service Provider Company Proprietary Limited (Cell C SPC). This dispute
has placed the business of Huge Telecom at risk and it has threatened
the ongoing access of Huge Telecom’s 16 000 customers, which are
predominantly SME customers, to vital telephone services. To mitigate
this risk, Huge Cellular concluded an agreement with Mobile Telephone
Networks Proprietary Limited. This agreement was concluded on 18
November 2019.
In August 2020, Cell C SPC informed Huge Cellular that it no longer
wished to provide services to Huge Cellular and gave Huge Cellular until
close of business on 31 October 2020 (which was later extended to 13
November 2020) to migrate its customers to an alternative mobile
network. These services provided by Huge Cellular to Huge Telecom,
and on to over 16 000 customers, involves over 43 000 telephone lines.
On 30 August 2020, Mobile Telephone Networks Proprietary Limited
(MTN), a MTN Group Limited company, agreed to assist Huge Cellular
and in turn Huge Telecom in migrating the entire Huge Telecom
customer base to the MTN mobile telephone network.
Huge is pleased to inform shareholders that as of Friday, 6 November
2020, the migration of Huge Telecom’s customers from the Cell C mobile
telephone network to the MTN mobile telephone network is 85%
complete.
The impact that Covid-19 has had on South Africa has been
devastating, with the ongoing impact it is having on SMEs being
arguably worse. In order to avoid any further negative impact, Huge
Cellular is engaging with Cell C SPC with a view to Cell C SPC extending
access to the Cell C mobile telephone network to ensure that the final
few remaining customers are migrated to MTN’s mobile telephone
network without any loss of service.
A further announcement will be released once the migration has been
fully completed.
Johannesburg
9 November 2020
Sponsor
Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking
Date: 09-11-2020 03:06:00
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