South Africa’s fixed-line incumbent Telkom wants to cut a network-sharing deal for its loss-making mobile operation with rival MTN.

In a statement, Telkom confirmed negotiations with MTN “involving the potential outsourcing of the operation of the Telkom radio access network (RAN) to MTN….”.

In addition, the two companies are talking about expanding their existing roaming relationship, it said.

For its part, a deal holds attractions too for MTN which wants to get hold of Telkom’s spectrum.

Telkom said at the end of last year it was in talks about the future of its mobile unit, without being specific about potential partners or what was planned.

It mentioned negotiations during a results meeting in which it also announced a widening loss for the first half of 2014.

Telkom is a newcomer to the mobile market and has struggled to compete with larger rivals Cell C, Vodacom and MTN.