Swaziland's SPTC Shuts Down Remaining Wireless Network:

After years of legal disputes, the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) has finally shut-down its wireless network. 

The company was ordered to close its mobile service after it lost the last leg in a legal battle with MTN which holds a monopoly over the provision of mobile services in the country.

SPTC had previously been ordered to terminate a mobile network it had set up, and the latest shut-down affected its fixed wireless services.

SPTC is owned by the government, and is also a shareholder in MTN's local subsidiary.

Last November, SPTC was stripped of its powers as the national regulator as the government seeks to tidy up the structures of the telecoms market.

Swaziland's SPTC to Relaunch Modified Version of Wireless Service:

Swaziland's monopoly landline operator, the SPTC says that it will switch on a fixed wireless service.

In order to get around the dispute with MTN which had seen the previous mobile service disabled last September as it broke MTN's mobile monopoly, the wireless receivers will have to be adapted to ensure they can only work in a fixed location.

SPTC's acting Managing Director Petros Dlamini made the announcement at a press event.

"I would like to assure the thousands of customers who bought our fixed phones and thousands of customers who bought our wireless dongles that their service will be re-provisioned for the wireless local loop service," the Times of Swaziland reports Dlamini as saying.

South Africa's MTN set up a mobile network in Swaziland in 1998, which is actually a joint-venture with SPTC and was granted a monopoly on mobile services. When SPTC started its own mobile service in 2011, MTN took the matter to court and after a series of disputes, won the case.

"The modified fixed phones will be relaunched before the end of the second quarter or sooner," Dlamini added.