Mountain Communications wins major share in Telecom Lesotho
22 November 2000
News
The Lesotho government has confirmed Mountain Communications (MC) as the winner of a tender to participate in the privatisation of Telecom Lesotho. MC will acquire a 70% stake in the company and will contribute towards the upgrading of Lesotho's national telecommunications infrastructure.
MC is a consortium comprising Econet Wireless International, Eskom Enterprises and Mauritius Telecom, and its bid gives it a five year exclusivity to provide telecommunications services throughout Lesotho, including operating the fixed-line, satellite and Internet services, as well as the second competitive national GSM cellular network.
Walter Brown, a member of the MC management team that will lead Telecom Lesotho into the next generation of fully-converged telecom services, says the consortium brings to the people of Lesotho a wide range of communications expertise to ensure the deployment of high quality telecommuni- cations solutions using the most modern technology currently available.
Brown says the company's objectives are twofold: "Firstly, a commitment to modernise domestic and international connectivity of all types of telecommunications traffic, including voice and data; and secondly, the improvement of consumer access to networked services through expansion and appropriate tariff structures."
In line with international trends MC aims to increase the number of lines per person in Lesotho from the existing one line per hundred to more than five lines per hundred within the five-year exclusivity period. This improvement in teledensity will in turn support the government's efforts to promote economic growth and enhance the living standards for all segments of the nation.
According to Vusi Mgubeni, Executive Director for Eskom Enterprises: Telecom- munications, and Chairman of MC, the partnership with Telecom Lesotho comes at an opportune time as the company drives to become part of the international economy.
"The advanced technologies and skills sets that MC brings will ensure that the requisite infrastructure is in place to bolster business on a global scale. We are proud of this partnership - it is indeed a milestone in line with the tenets of the African Renaissance."
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