Viettel on Thursday announced the launch of services in Tanzania, its 11th operating market.
The Vietnamese telco said it is offering mobile and Internet services under the brand name Halotel, based on 2G and 3G mobile technology.
"Viettel’s vision is to provide every Tanzanian with a mobile phone and bring communication and information technology to every corner of life in the country," said Viettel group director general Nguyen Manh Hung, in a statement.
Viettel said it has invested US$736 million in the roll out of network infrastructure, making services available in all of Tanzania’s 26 provinces, including rural and urban areas. Halotel covers 81% of the population, including 1,500 villages that have coverage for the first time.
It has installed 18,000 km of fibre-optic network and 3,000-plus base stations.
Viettel said that infrastructure will enable it to provide free Internet connectivity to 450 public schools over the next three years.
The launch in Tanzania means that Viettel now operates in four African markets. It launched services under the Lumitel banner in Burundi and as Nexttel in Cameroon earlier this year, having introduced the Movitel brand to Mozambique in 2014.
At the end of last year Viettel had 75 million customers in 10 countries across Asia, Africa and South America. It posted annual revenues of US$9.8 billion and claims to have turned a $2 billion profit.
