Etisalat Nigeria said on Monday that it was suing its rival MTN Nigeria over plans to acquire the local internet company Visafone Communications.
The lawsuit centres on MTN’s potential use of Visafone’s 800 megahertz of spectrum, Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat’s Nigeria unit said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.
“The action [lawsuit] is considered necessary to challenge the use of the spectrum by MTN at this time, as to not challenge it will entrench the dominance of MTN in the data services market,” Etisalat Nigeria said.
The latest lawsuit is expected to add to MTN Nigeria’s woes.
“The lawsuit will add to the challenges facing MTN Nigeria, which is already fighting a massive fine from the Nigerian telecoms regulator over the late disconnection of unregistered Sim cards,” said Matthew Reed, the practice leader for Middle East and Africa at Ovum, the research company.
MTN Nigeria has been served with court papers and the phone company was in court last week about the matter, spokesman Funso Aina said by text message.
Tony Ojobo, a spokesman for the Nigerian Communications Commission, the regulator that approved the Visafone deal, said the NCC hasn’t received any official correspondence from Etisalat questioning the approval of the MTN acquisition.
In 2013, the NCC said MTN, the biggest mobile phone company in Nigeria, had become dominant in the mobile-voice market. The South African company is also in talks with the regulator to settle a $3.9 billion fine for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered subscribers last year.
MTN had 62.5 million Nigerian subscribers as of the end of September, according to the NCC’s website. Globacom and Airtel Nigeria had about 31 million each, while Etisalat was the country’s fourth-biggest operator with 23 million customers.
