The most exciting news for the year has been dominated by local telecoms giant MTN. The company signed two acquisitions in the first working week of the year and then, in the second week, signed a major deal with Neotel.

The mobile giant has come out swinging, gaining the approval of the Competition Tribunal to acquire 59 percent of Durban-based channel partner iTalk Cellular. This deal kicked off last year and has been contested by secondary bidder, the Huge Group. The group’s CEO Anton Potgieter said the loss of the iTalk deal has not derailed the business’ strategy for the coming year.