CK Telecom to Set Up Communications Hub in Congo
Congo-Korea (CK) Telecom, a joint venture between Congolese government and
domestic firms named Komyong, said yesterday that it will set up a communications
hub in the Congo, building a facility-based telecom infrastructure.
CK's Director General Kim Chung-ho said the company will host a groundbreaking
ceremony for the project on July 20.
In its initial stage, CK Telecom will launch a landline telephone business for 150,000
subscribers in Kinshasa, capitol of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and expand its
capacity to 900,000 subscribers by 2004.
What's more, the company said it is preparing to start Internet access, international
calling and mobile communications services in the Congo from the end of this year.
To this end, Kim said the company is in discussions with large domestic companies,
including state-run Korea Telecom, Samsung SDS and SK-Shinsegi Telecomm, to
attract investments in the African region. However, no immediate confirmation has
been reached from those companies.
``Substantial synergy effects are expected when our plan is connected with the Africa
One project,'' Kim said.
The Africa One project is an undersea fiberoptic cable system that will link the
countries of Africa to one another and to the world.
He said that this state-of-the-art telecommunication network will enable each country in
Africa to satisfy the tremendous new capacity requirements generated by the growth
of the Internet, e-mail and e-commerce, as well as provide greater reliability and quality
connections, all at a reduced cost.
According to a report released by the Africa One project, telecommunication services
in Africa, a continent with 780 million people, are scarce, expensive and unreliable.
Phone and Internet services, where available, are expensive and erratic.
Outside of Nigeria and South Africa, only 1.9 million people in sub- Saharan Africa
enjoy regular phone service. While the number of main lines is growing at 10 percent a
year across Africa, more than a million people are languishing on telephone waiting
lists, it said.
kdh@koreatimes.co.kr
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