Viettel committed to Haiti

Vietnam's largest cellular network operator by subscribers, Viettel, said it remains committed to its investments in Haiti, despite the catastrophic damage suffered by the Caribbean country during the January earthquake.

Vietnamese news portal Tuoi Tre Online quotes the deputy general director of Viettel, Nguyen Manh Quan, as saying that the company had earlier this year inked a deal to partner Haitian incumbent fixed line operator Teleco in a project installing a 2,000km terrestrial fiber-optic cable network which would bring broadband Internet access to remote parts of the island nation, TeleGeography CommsUpdate reported.

According to Quan, Viettel will invest USD60 million to supplement Teleco’s USD40 million investment in the project. Military-owned Viettel, which also provides fixed line and broadband services in its home market, had been on the verge of completing a deal to acquire a majority stake in Haiti’s cash-strapped PSTN provider in January, just before the lethal earthquake struck.