MTN’s offering mobile connectivity at Gautrain stations, too

Within hours of Vodacom announcing it now offers mobile connectivity at the Gautrain’s Rosebank, Sandton and Park Stations rival MTN has done likewise. In a statement released late on Wednesday MTN says commuters will be able to enjoy the connectivity from 3 July, adding that the “other stations will be covered by existing infrastructure”.

It appears MTN will be piggybacking on the infrastructure installed by rival Vodacom. How heart-warming it is to see them playing nicely with one another — that or, you know, Vodacom’s charging MTN a premium.

For added confusion, MTN also announced that it will be “further deploying its network to blanket other parts of the Gautrain network”, which suggests that the rest of the Gautrain stations won’t be covered by “existing infrastructure” as suggested, but by new infrastructure instead. Frankly we don’t really care how the stations are connected as long as our phones are online and we don’t have to make eye contact (or worse, conversation) with other passengers.

“MTN is pleased to offer this much-needed connectivity for its customers using the Gautrain, the provision of this connectivity to Gautrain will ensure that our customers stay connected while in transit without the inconvenience of only catching up when they disembark,” says Eben Albertyn, MTN South Africa’s chief technical officer.

We’re delighted to have it, Eben.