“In 2004, it used to cost several dollars talk on the phone for one minute in Ghana. But now, only 0.1 dollar per minute,’’ said an employee from Expresso Telecom Limited Company in Ghana, “the telecom market cannot be compared with the old days, thanks to China’s enterprises .”
In recent years, telecom industry in Africa has been booming rapidly with increasing mobile subscribers. All these development cannot happen without China’s enterprises, said Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Thanks to China, telecommunication development in Africa is quite different.
Countries in Africa like South Africa cut phone charge
Mobile telecom carrier Cell and Vodacom in South Africa have reduced call charge to 0.99 Rand (one dollar is equivalent to 8.5 South Africa rand) per minute for prepaid telephone users.
According to fresh statistic data of communication commission of Nigeria, at the end of August 2012, the number of registered telecommunication users had increased to 141 million in Nigeria.
Nowadays, there are 170,000 mobile communication towers in Africa, and the number of mobile phone users in Africa has reached more than 760 million, which made Africa the quickest growing mobile phone market in the world. It is predicted that mobile phone users will reach one billion in Africa in 2015. The Internet is expected to be available for eight percent of African people by 2020.
Chinese enterprises participate in optical network construction in Africa
As equipment suppliers for Africa, Chinese enterprises accounted for more than 50 percent in the South Africa telecom market, said Zhao Houlin, deputy secretary general of ITU. Chinese enterprises have participated in national optical networks in Congo, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania and so on.
South Africa northwest provincial government information technical supervisor said China has not only promoted the telecom technology development in Africa, but also has boosted comprehensive development in African economic society. China plays an important role in poverty reduction, agriculture development, equality between men and women, coping with climate changes, etc.
A report issued by an U.S. agency in 2011 revealed that Chinese company has broken Western telecom companies’ monopoly position in Africa with lower communication charge, which has contributed a lot to African mobile communication industry.
The investments of Chinese communication companies have promoted African direct and real progress, from which African people can benefit directly.
Edited and translated by Ma Xi, People's Daily Online
Read the Chinese version: 中国企业推动非洲电信发展
Source:People's Daily
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