Johannesburg — Cellular service provider Vodacom is expanding its African footprint, with a move into neighbouring Mozambique.

Vodacom announced this week that it has been awarded a licence to become Mozambique's second GSM operator, competing against mCel, which is co-owned by the Mozambican government and German company Detecon.

Negotiations will begin tomorrow between Vodacom and the Mozambican regulator, INCM, to finalise the licence conditions.

Vodacom, which already operates in SA, Lesotho, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, expects Vodacom Mozambique's operations to have a positive impact on its bottom line.

The company points out that Mozambique has overtaken Zimbabwe as SA's largest African trading partner, and says South African companies have invested more than R25 billion in Mozambique over the past few years.

Andrew Mthembu, deputy CEO of Vodacom Group and MD of Vodacom International Holdings, says Vodacom Mozambique is forecasting a total market of one million customers after 10 years of operations and expects to win a market share of at least 50%.

Vodacom International will have the majority stake in Vodacom Mozambique with local partner Emotel, a consortium of local businesspeople, public figures and the war veterans association.

Mthembu is the chairman designate of Vodacom Mozambique, with a managing director of the new company to be announced soon. Time frames and launch costs have not yet been announced.

Earlier this year, Vodacom rolled out its cellular operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in just three months, at a cost of around $94 million. Vodacom stated a similar target in Congo to that in Mozambique - 50% of the market in 10 years.