Vietnam Telecom company eyes Ethiopia, Africa market

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Viettel Group, a Vietnamese major mobile network operator headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnman, is set to invest in Ethiopia as well as Africa, according to a statement the company sent to The Reporter via email. The company, a state-owned enterprise wholly owned and operated by the Vietnam Ministry of Defense, is eyeing Ethiopia’s market to serve particularly in fiber optics installation works, according to the statement.

The company did not disclose when it will enter Ethiopia’s market and how much it will be investing, except that it has sheer interest to invest in the country as well as in sub-Saharan Africa.

“According to the World Bank 2011 ICT infrastructure report issued in June last year, the average broadband density in sub-Saharan Africa is very low, accounting for two percent in urban areas and nearly one percent in rural areas,” the company said in a statement. “The mobile coverage area only reaches 60 percent of the African population on average and mainly the urban areas. Only 20 percent of the African people living in rural areas have access to the mobile signal coverage. Africa is a huge potential market.”

The company said that apart from South Africa owning 80 percent of the fiber optical cable system, the sub-Saharan countries have the average density of 140 km of fiber optical cable per one million people, which is one seventh of the global density level.

Most of the countries where the state-owned company is perusing investment opportunities are developing markets, in terms of their economies and telecommunications, according to the statement.

Source: The Reporter