By Emmanuel Tumanjong
YAOUNDE, Cameroon--Vietnam's Viettel Group will become the third
mobile-phone operator in Cameroon after signing an accord with the
government, state-run daily "Cameroon Tribune" reports Monday,
saying an agreement was signed Friday by the two parties in
Yaounde.
Viettel Foreign Affairs Manager Nguyen Duc Quang said his
company will start operating in 2014 after establishing itself in
the country and recruiting an expected 6,500 workers during 2013,
the newspaper reports.
He also told the paper the company will be investing in third
generation, or 3G, technology, enabling it to provide voice, data,
video and internet services to its customers.
Cameroon's minister of telecommunications, Jean Pierre Biyi
Bi-Essam, said last week the government had chosen Viettel Cameroun
Sarl over two other bidders to buy the West African nation's
remaining mobile phone licenses.
Viettel will now compete with Orange Cameoun controlled by
France Telecom (FTE.FR), and South Africa's MTN Group Ltd.
(MTN.JO), which has over nine million subscribers among Cameroon's
20 million inhabitants.
The company, which will cover some 81% of Cameroon's territory
when it starts operating, said it will cut its service rates by
between 15% and 20%.
India's Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY), Maroc Telecom (IAM.CL)
and Korea Telecom were among Viettel's rival bidders in the
mobile-phone license tender that was launched earlier this
year.
Write to Emmanuel Tumanjong at
realtimedesklondon@dowjones.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires