Illustrative photo (Source: Viettel)Hanoi (VNA) - Viettel’s subsidiary in Burundi, Lumitel, won the“Best operator in an emerging market” and “Best brand” awards at the 2016 WorldCommunication Awards (WCA) held in Britain last month.
To win these awards, Lumitel had to overcome a challengefrom international telecom companies like Orange (France), Telstra (Australia),Airtel (India), Ooredoo (Qatar) and Telkomsel (Indonesia).
Lumitel has invested in laying 3,000km of fibre-optic cableto cover all of Burundi’s 18 provinces, and the number of its base transceiverstations equals that of all four of its competitors put together.
One month after starting operations, Lumitel became thesecond biggest player in Burundi.
After one year, the company rose to the first place with a46 percent market share and 1.5 million subscribers out of a total populationof 10 million.
Last October, Lumitel was recognised as the Most SuccessfulNew Enterprise of the Year, its first international award, by the InternationalBusiness Awards – IBA Stevie Awards, after it built complete, high-qualityinfrastructure within a short time, used IT in sales, registered all smartphone users’ private information, and set up a distribution network coveringremote areas.
For Viettel, this was the fifth “Best operator in anemerging market” award. The group’s subsidiaries in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos,and Timor Leste also won it.
The World Communication Awards were established in 1999 torecognise excellence amongst global telecom operators. They are open to all fixedand mobile operators and service providers who operate fully or partly in whatis widely recognised as a developing market. — VNA
