(Ecofin Agency) - The partnership directly enhances communication quality for hundreds of millions of Africans who rely on mobile networks as their primary gateway to the internet. It's also a blueprint for telco–tech cooperation in emerging markets, where innovation must balance affordability, scale, and performance.

MTN Group has teamed up with Meta to boost the quality and reliability of voice and video calls on real-time calling apps, including WhatsApp, the company announced on April 14.

“This implementation further demonstrates our commitment to enhancing our customers’ digital experience. We’re pleased with the remarkable improvement in our real-time communication services,” said Yahaya Ibrahim, Chief Technical Officer at MTN Nigeria.

The collaboration focuses on 12 MTN markets, leveraging a dual approach of optimising application-aware networks (mobile networks that understand the needs of specific applications like WhatsApp, Zoom, YouTube, etc.) and network-aware applications (apps that can adapt to the current conditions of the mobile network they’re running on). The goal is to deliver smoother, more stable, and higher-quality calls for millions of users.

The first country to benefit from the initiative is Nigeria, where results have already shown a 50% improvement in key performance indicators (KPIs) related to call quality and stability.

The success in Nigeria marks the beginning of a broader rollout, as MTN and Meta aim to replicate these gains across the remaining 11 markets, further solidifying their commitment to innovation and digital inclusion across the continent.

“The collaboration allows us to deploy advanced solutions for an unparalleled real-time experience in Nigeria and showcases our dedication to elevating service quality and improving user experience,” added Diego Marí, Head of Network Ecosystems Engineering at Meta.

Network quality continues to be a major concern for telecom users in Africa, with many users facing dropped calls, latency, and jitter—especially during peak hours. A 2024 OpenSignal report titled ‘The state of mobile network experience in Africa’ indicates that approximately 60% of analyzed African countries score below 30% in Consistent Quality, which measures the network's ability to support common mobile applications without noticeable lag or slowdown. Addressing these network quality issues requires collaborative efforts between telecom operators and technology companies.

This partnership reflects a broader global trend of OTT (Over-the-Top) platforms like Meta working with telcos to co-develop smarter, more efficient infrastructure. MTN and Meta have already been engaged in open internet initiatives, such as Meta’s investments in subsea cables (like 2Africa).

Hikmatu Bilali