On Monday, Bloomberg confirmed that telecommunications company, Etisalat, is suing MTN over its purchase of Visafone Communications, an internet provider in Nigeria.
It seems like MTN is finding itself in a pile of legal troubles as they receive another legal threat from Etisalat, a telecommunications company. Etisalat is filing a case against MTN after the latter purchased Visafone Communications Ltd., a well-known Internet provider in Nigeria.
In the complaint, Etisalat said that MTN's purchase of Visaphone would use 800 megahertz of spectrum.
"Not to challenge will entrench the dominance of MTN in the data services market," wrote Etisalat's Nigeria unit in an e-mail statement, as reported by Bloomberg.
Bloomberg added that MTN has already been served with the court papers, urging them to attend court last week to discuss the matter. Funso Auna, MTN spokesman, communicated with the website via text message and confirmed that the company did visit court to understand and discuss the situation.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) spokesperson, Tony Ojobo approved the deal with Visafone. Ojobo commented that the NCC has not gotten any correspondence from Etisalat if it doubts the approval of the MTN purchase.
2013 was a big year for MTN. NCC said that MTN, who is known to be the biggest mobile service provider in Nigeria, dominated the market. However, its success came with a bunch of legal backlash as the company is currently discussing a settlement for missing deadlines to disconnect unregistered subscribers in 2015.
According to records dated at the end of September, MTN currently has 62.5 million subscribers in Nigeria alone. Competitors Airtel Nigeria and Globacom had 31 million subscribers each, making Etisalat the fourth largest mobile operator at 23 million subscribers.
Amina Oyagbola, MTN Nigeria executive, commented that their purchase of Visaphone was finalized after gaining regulatory ad statutory approvals, as reported by Iniwiz.com.
