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Huawei Launches Rural Zambia Universal Access Project

Huawei Launches Rural Zambia Universal Access Project

From ITWeb Africa

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has officially kicked off a project to build 169 mobile towers in under-serviced rural areas in Zambia.

The first tower was officially launched by Zambia’s Vice President Dr Guy Scott (pictured) and other government and Huawei officials at Matanda in Zambia’s Luapula Province on Thursday.

Huawei is constructing base stations as part of a Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) ‘Universal Access Project’ to build 169 towers in all rural areas of the country’s ten provinces.

Construction of all towers are expected to be completed by October 2014. Also, all three of Zambia’s mobile networks are planned to share the towers more or less equally with 57 to be serviced by Zamtel, 56 by MTN and 56 by Airtel.

Rural areas in Zambia are severely underserved by mobile networks. A 2012 study by Wireless Intelligent said that Zambia has more than 5 million people who are not subscribed to mobile communication services and most of them live in isolated rural areas.

“Through our dedicated effort and commitment to the Zambian market, we endeavor to work with local partners towards improved network quality, affordable rates and more value-added services for the benefit of the people of Zambia,” Huawei Technologies Zambia managing director Spawn Fan Wen told dignitaries at a briefing.

Huawei; though, has been under the spotlight in Africa in recent months for winning controversial mobile network upgrade contracts.

Read more at ITWeb Africa