China Unicom seals deal to expand Cameroon's telecom capacity

YAOUNDE - Chinese mobile communication company China Unicom has signed an agreement with its Cameroonian counterpart to cooperate on improve link between the Central African country with the rest of world.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of China Unicom Yimin Lu signed the agreement with the General Manager of Cameroon Telecommunications (CAMTEL) David Nkoto Emane for deploying a submarine optical fibre cable to link Cameroon in Central Africa with Brazil in South America.

The 5,900 km long project deployed by Huawei Marine Networks, which will build the landing station in Kribi in the South Region of Cameroon, with Telefonica handling the landing station in Fortaleza, Brazil, estimated to cost 280 billion CFA francs ($487), will boost Cameroon's telecommunications capability.

"We are going into this project that will take about 24 months for its deployment," said Emane.

He said while observing the evolution of the utilization of the internet in Cameroon, the company has observed that "the present cables cannot support all communication activities."

"Thus, this project is to improve the capacity and national coverage of Camtel network and other mobile phone operators' big band services to homes and businesses all over our national territory," said Emane.

He added that China Unicom will effectively extend the National Broadband Network (NBN) of Cameroon and improve its activities, while Yimin Lu said the new submarine optical fibre cable will also ease connections between South America, Africa, Europe and Asia continents.

China Unicom is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator. It is the world's fourth largest mobile service provider by subscriber base.