MTN buys Afrihost

The country’s leading “small” Internet Service Provider, Afrihost, has sold a controlling interest to MTN, which has been providing its mobile data feed.

Afrihost has been sold to MTN after 14 years of leading the market in lowering the cost of data.

MTN is buying 50% +1 of Afrihost’s shares, while the current shareholders are retaining the remaining 50% minus 1 share.

“I sincerely believe that joining MTN is the best thing we can do for you, our clients and our team,” said CEO Gian Visser in an e-mail to customers today. “We’re going to do amazing things.

Addressing the question, “So why did we choose MTN?”, he offered the following explanation:

“Two years ago we took on the mammoth (and scary) task of moving all our ADSL clients to the MTN network. Since then we’ve been working very closely with them on a daily basis. And launching the industry-shaking Afrihost Mobile on the MTN network eight months ago has also meant we’ve spent many, many more hours in the trenches together.

“And I can honestly say that they have been incredible. In every way. Their commitment and transparency has been inspiring. Even when things have gone wrong they’ve always been right by our side, arm in arm, fighting the fire with us. We would never, ever have considered doing this if we had not experienced MTN’s dedication and service to us, as their client, for the last two years. And I think the results speak for themselves.

Afrihost has won the ISP of the Year award for the last three years: and led in the ADSL MyBroadband survey the last six times they’ve run it. Afrihost Mobile has, since launching, led in the last two MyBroadband Mobile Broadband surveys.

Visser says nothing will change for the customer.

“MTN loves what Afrihost has been doing. And we have all agreed that we’ll keep running Afrihost exactly as we have been. The way you deal with us stays the same. Our management team stays the same. The entire Afrihost team stays the same… We keep working out of our own premises.

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