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JANUARY 27, 2006

Celtel International, one of Africa's leading mobile operators and an MTC owned company, announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Madagascar's mobile telecom operator, Madacom for an undisclosed amount.

Madacom, one of Madagascar's mobile telecom operators, offers extensive mobile coverage to more than 200,000 customers throughout the island and has an ambitious growth strategy to further increase coverage and provide enhanced services. This acquisition will give Madacom access to Celtel's operational expertise as well as the company's financial resources to realize the growth strategy.

Celtel now offers mobile telecommunications services to more than 8.5 million customers in 14 countries in Africa with a total licensed population of approximately 270 million people. Celtel was advised by Lehman Brothers. With this recent acquisition MTC gains a new footprint in the region and adds to its portfolio to become a 19 country operation in less than 4 years.

Marten Pieters, CEO of Celtel International, said: 'We are delighted with the acquisition of a majority stake in Madacom. This is an important addition to our portfolio of 13 African countries in which we currently operate. We will contribute our expertise and operational experience to achieve sustainable development of mobile communications in Madagascar. Based on our pan-African experience in building mobile networks we are looking forward to increasing service quality and coverage for our customers in Madagascar.'