The agreement aims to give enterprise and wholesale customers for both firms access to extended network coverage across some of the fastest growing economies in the world.
CTG has already launched a point of presence (PoP) at Liquid Telecom’s East Africa Data Centre in Nairobi, but the new agreement will see it establish further PoP’s at Liquid sites in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
China has seen significant growth in internet users over the last decade. Figures from Statista show there were just 210 million internet users in China in 2007, compared with 771 million at the end of 2017.
Changhai Liu, managing director of China Telecom (Africa and Middle East), said: “With more than 50 countries in the region, Africa is nonetheless the booming new market with the highest development rate just after Asia, and a very important market for CTG.
“This collaboration will enable both CTG and Liquid Telecom better serve our customers and explore untapped business potential for further development. Under this partnership, we are well positioned to enhance the connectivity and network infrastructure in both regions.”
Sub-Saharan Africa had 420-million unique mobile subscribers with an average penetration rate of 43% at the end of 2016. The number of mobile broadband connections is expected to more than double to about half-a-billion by 2020.
Smartphone connections have doubled over the past two years to nearly 200-million and mobile data traffic is forecast to grow 12-fold across Africa as a whole over the next five years.
The agreement will also see CTG and Liquid Telecom work together to explore opportunities around joint services which can be offered to their respective bases.
The agreement was signed during a signing ceremony held at Liquid Telecom’s Johannesburg office, with representatives from both companies present. These included China Telecom Global EVP Donald Tan, Liu, Liquid Telecom’s Group CEO Nic Rudnick, and Liquid Telecom’s group chief business development officer Willem Marais.
Marais said: ““This partnership with China Telecom Global reflects the strong global demand for world-class network services across Africa. Our combined service and network capabilities will be of great value to multinationals operating in some of the fastest growing economies across Africa and Asia-Pacific.”
