Vietnamese telco Viettel won a contract to supply mobile services in Peru last week, according to local newspaper Peru21.
Viettel, which has reportedly won spectrum in the Band C block of the 1,900MHz band, will gain a 20-year licence and invest US$150m,…
Vietnamese telco Viettel won a contract to supply mobile services in Peru last week, according to local newspaper Peru21.
Viettel, which has reportedly won spectrum in the Band C block of the 1,900MHz band, will gain a 20-year licence and invest US$150m, with plans to start operating in the first half of 2011.
As part of its offer, Viettel offered to give free internet access to more than 4,000 schools in the country for ten years.
Peru21 also reported that several other telcos participated in the auction offered by Proinversion, a government agency that promotes private investment.
They were: Winner Systems, a subsidiary of the Russian software developer Mera Networks; Americatel, a subsidiary of the Chilean telco Entel; and the Kuwait-based Hits Telecom Holding.
It will now become Peru’s fourth mobile operator, competing with Claro (part of Telmex), Movistar (controlled by Telefonica) and Nextel del Peru (part of NII Holdings).
Viettel is itself state-owned, since plans for its privatisation – put forward in 2005 – have not been completed.
In 2010 it moved outside the Far East, leading the Movitel consortium to win Mozambique’s third mobile licence and taking a 60% stake in new Haitian telco Natcom, together with domestic player telco Teleco and the Central Bank of Haiti.
Viettel was unavailable for comment.
