South Africa’s biggest mobile operator Vodacom is reportedly involved in plans to build a national fibre optic cable network.

In a response to reports today about its involvement, Reuters quoted spokeswoman Dot Field as saying “Vodacom has been building metropolitan fibre networks for the last 2 years, and has also been closely involved in the discussions around a national fibre network.”

MTN and new fixed-line group Neotel are already working on a 5,000-km fibre optics cable network, which will eventually link up South Africa’s major cities, and save them billions in transmission costs as they reduce their dependence on fixed-line incumbent Telkom.

Vodacom is currently jointly owned by both Telkom and Vodafone, however the UK mobile giant is increasing its stake to give control of the firm.