(Ecofin Agency) - Since 2013, Guinean authorities have been stepping up efforts to revive the state-owned telecom company, which went bankrupt a year earlier. Ten years later, the company is still not ready to return to the market.

The Guinean government wants to capitalize on the expertise of telecom operator MTN Guinea to relaunch the commercial activities of state-owned operator Guinea Telecom. The issue was discussed between Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, and representatives of the telecoms operator last Wednesday.

The parties discussed various aspects of the possible collaboration, including the testing of Guinea Telecom's SIM cards, and the development of the public operator's network IT master plan.

MTN Guinea's support is expected to accelerate the launch of Guinea Telecom, which has been dragging on for years. The company was originally scheduled to begin commercial operations in the first half of 2023, but this will not be possible until 2024 since it must first test and operationalize all of its telecom towers. It will also have to recruit staff for its administrative, commercial, accounting, and network departments.

As a reminder, MTN is the second-largest Guinean telecom operator by market share. As of the third quarter of 2022, the operator was controlling 24.8 percent of the market, according to figures from the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ARPT). The rest of the market is shared between Orange (65.9 percent) and Cellcom (9.4 percent). 

Isaac K. Kassouwi