Swazi Mobile launches fixed-wireless voice, data services; MTN to follow

New market entrant Swazi Mobile has formally launched fixed-wireless voice and broadband services, the Swazi Observer reports, while rival operator MTN Swaziland has disclosed plans to enter the fixed line sector in 2018. The decision to allow the mobile players to enter the fixed line market has reportedly angered monopolist the Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC), with the newspaper quoting SPTC managing director Petros Dlamini as telling Prime Minister Dr Sibusiso Dlamini: ‘It is unfair to allow mobile companies to add fixed wireless landlines to their products while the fixed landline providers are not allowed to venture into mobile … We would like to encourage the regulator to monitor and ensure that the playing field is level during the transition period.’ The SPTC will feel particularly aggrieved at the decision, given that its own cellular ambitions were derailed back in 2012, when MTN issued a legal challenge against its ‘ONE’ network, which ended with the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva ordering the SPTC to cease offering mobile services.