Viettel to invest in Mozambique

Mozambique has agreed to license military-run Viettel’s Movitel to operate in the country.

Movitel will be the third mobile phone operator in Mozambique. The service will be a joint venture between Viettel and the country’s SPI.

Over a five-year period, Movitel plans to invest about US$400 million in Mozambique and to reach 85 per cent of the Mozambican population.

Isidore Pedro da Silva, chairman of the National Communications Institute (INCM), said he believed that a third service provider entering the market would force down the fees charged by the two other operators – state-run mCel and Vodacom.

According to Mobile World analysts, as of June 2010, Mozambique had 6.77 million mobile phone subscribers.

In February 2009, Viettel officially launched its first mobile phone networks abroad – Metfone in Cambodia and Unitel in Laos.

It negotiated to purchase a 60 per cent stake in Bangladesh’s Teletalk for $250 million, which it raised to $300 million. Viettel has also purchased a 70 per cent stake in Haiti’s Teleco.

Tong Viet Trung, deputy general director of Viettel, said the company would pour $300 million into the Haiti market.

Trung said his company planned to focus on co-operating and upgrading fixed-telephone lines in Haiti.

Viettel plans to erect more than 1,000 base transceiver stations and expects to begin operating in Haiti in the first quarter of 2011. — VNS

Tags: Movitel, Viettel Mozambique