By Zuko Komisa
Rain has been forced to withdraw its media announcement of a plan to merge with Telkom after the move was condemned by the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP) as unlawful.
Rain announced a plan to merge with Telkom in a press release on Thursday of last week.
The TRP, however, claimed that the media release was made without its consent, in violation of the law.
It compelled Rain to retract the statement. Rain said that it would seek legal counsel.
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Kaya Biz with Gugulethu Mfuphi spoke to Jan Vermuelen, My Broadband Editor about all this means for Rain.
LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION HERE:
Vermuelen shared why many telecoms company are all trying to have a stake in Telkom.
“What a lot of people perhaps don’t realise is that it is not just the old copper mine, Telkom also has a massive fibre network, its fibre network is bigger than anybody in the country. It has over 169 000 km of fibre in the ground. There’s just no other player that can remotely compete with that, even though VUMA Tel passes more homes and has connected more homes through their network.
“If you need fibre cover for 5G somewhere in the middle of nowhere Telkom is probably the one who can give it to you.”
Tuesday morning, Rain removed its press release, but stated that it would soon present Telkom with a formal proposal.
“As Rain we are pleased with Telkom’s SENS [Stock Exchange News Service] announcement stating that if an offer or formal proposal is received from Rain, the board of Telkom will consider it,” the company said in a statement.



