TelOne not aware of MTNL acquisition “arrangement”

Two days ago, an Indian publication, The Economic Times, reported that Indian state owned telecoms firm, MTNL, was eying a 51% stake in TelOne. We did a story on that here.

We contacted TelOne to get more details of the apparent ongoing negotiations between the two telecos. The response we got from TelOne spokesperson, Collin Wilbesi, is a vague “As TelOne, we’re not aware of any such arrangement.”

This could of course mean a couple of things. Either that TelOne itself is not aware but the Government of Zimbabwe is, that TelOne is not ready to start speaking on the issue, or that MTNL is just interested in a stake but not real negotiations have kicked off on the ground.

The next couple of weeks should bring more light to the issue when the local state owned press pick up the issue. Parastatals usually like opening up to one of their own.