Orange indicated that it may sell its Kenyan and Ugandan tions, now South Africa’s Vodacom and MTN are eying the stakes and are in the race to buy Orange’s Ugandan operations now that they are nominally up for sale.

Orange originally entered the Uganda market in 2008 through a partnership with Hits Telecom, in which it bought a 53 percent stake, which has since been lifted to 95 percent.

The advantage MTN has is that, it already has a network in the country, so a purchase would see some necessary market consolidation, although as Orange Uganda is a tiny network by customer base, the impact on market share would be negligible. The main gain for MTN would be spectrum and network assets.

As for Vodacom, this sale could see a strong new competitor enter the market, if Vodacom was willing to pump in the necessary investment.

The recently merged Bharti/Warid network has a 38 percent market share, compared to MTN’s 43 percent and Uganda Telecom has a 16 percent market share.

Uganda Telecom is seen at the most likely company to fall next — if only due to its struggling financial situation. The company is being sued by a number of firms over unpaid invoices