Last year, KT Corp had its offer to buy 20% of Telkom South Africa blocked by the country’s government. Now the company has clinched a deal in Rwanda where it is to pump $140 million to build the country’s 4G network. The deal was reached after KT Corp signed a a shareholders’ agreement establishing a joint venture company to deploy the LTE broadband network over the next three years.
Part of the statement released by the parties read;
“As principal shareholders, KT will bring expertise and make a staged cash injection of around $140m, while the government’s equity investment in the joint venture includes assignment of its extensive (over 3 000km) national fibre-optic network assets, spectrum and a wholesale-only operator licence.
Rwanda’s current mobile network operators are invited to invest in the project, and it is expected that these companies and other Internet service providers will provide retail access to 4G/LTE wireless broadband services for 12m end users (at full maturity of the market).”
The joint agreement will initially lapse after a period of 25 years and the deployment of the network is expected to start within the next few months.
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