Unitel - a joint venture between Laos Asia Telecom and Vietnam Military Telecommunications Group - won the 2012 World Communication Award (WCA) for Best Operator in a Developing Market category, said Viettel on November 16.

   An Unitel representative (middle) at the awarding ceremony.

Earlier, on November 14, in South Africa, Viettel’s Movitel (in Mozambique) successfully won the 2012 African Communication Award in the category of Rural Telecom.

Viettel’s companies have competed with many global telecom firms like Orange (France), Vodafone (the UK), Hutchison Global (Hong Kong), Bharti Airtel …

At the WCA, Unitel was the first representative from Laos to compete for an international communication award. After three years of operation, Unitel has become top services provider in the local market with a 44% market share. Its wide network has boosted the growth of the Lao telecommunications industry by increasing telecom density four-fold.

For every one million population, the fiber optic network has increased from 1,300 km to 6,600 km, or 6.6 times the global average, and base transceiver stations from 250 to 950, five times the global average.

Unitel has already established a wide distribution system with 15,000 agents along with local commune sales staff that ensures services are brought to every resident. The system has created stable jobs and incomes for over 20.000 local workers.

In Africa, Movitel has been highly appreciated by the regional telecommunications community and was nominated for the final round of the 2012 African Communication Awards in the Rural Telecom category despite the fact it had only launched its services in May.

The outstanding aspects of Movitel’s solutions are derived from its philosophy that telecom services are an indispensable product for most people.

Movitel has created a nationwide network of infrastructure and business, in the process propelling Mozambique into the top three nations in Sub-Sahara in terms of telecom infrastructure. Telecom infrastructure is a key requirement for a country to usher in e-governance, improve healthcare and education and training, and foster economic development.

The Awards, won by beating famous international names, vindicate Viettel’s development strategy and the effectiveness of its solutions that seek to take telecom services to everybody./.

(CPV)