Portugal Telecom Spending $54 Million Upgrading East Timor Network

­The chief executive of Portugal Telecom, Zeinal Bava has said that the company is investing over US$54 million in improving the telecommunications network in Timor Leste (East Timor) by the end of 2009.

Zeinal Bava told MacauHub at a press conference that PT "is working on the 3G network so that within 24 months Timor can have access to mobile Internet as well as to fixed line."

"We are seeking to bring the most advanced telecommunications technologies to East Timor. As well as laying an undersea cable, which makes it possible to stop depending on satellites for Internet access, we are going to double the number of mobile phone aerials by April of next year, to a total of 80," Bava said, cited by Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Timor Telecom is the monopoly operator in the country, and the analysts at the Mobile World reports that the mobile operator ended Q1 '09 with 137,000 customers - representing a population penetration level of just 12%.

In 2007, the government discussed breaking the monopoly, which is not due to expire until 2017 - but nothing seems to have happened since then.

On the web: Mobile World - MacauHub

Posted to the site on 25th September 2009