By Emmanuel Tumanjong
YAOUNDE, Cameroon--Viettel Cameroun Sarl, the local unit of
Vietnamese telecommunication company Viettel, will invest about 200
billion CFA francs ($393.9 million) in Cameroon's
telecommunications industry, said Minister of Telecommunications
Jean Pierre Biyiti Bi-Essam.
The statement late Monday followed news that Viettel has been
chosen by the government as the country's third mobile telephone
operator.
Viettel will be competing against Orange, controlled by France
Telecom (FTE.FR), and South Africa's MTN Group Ltd. (MTN.JO), which
have nine million subscribers among Cameroon's 20 million
inhabitants.
Viettel "will be covering some 81% of the national territory [in
Cameroon] when it goes operational; and will use second and third
generation technologies," said Mr. Bi-Essam.
India's Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY), Maroc Telecom (IAM.CL)
and Korea Telecom were among Viettel's rival bidders for the mobile
telecom tender that was launched earlier this year.
Write to Emmanuel Tumanjong at
realtimedesklondon@dowjones.com
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