French telecommunications giant Orange and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have signed a ‘strategic’ deal, which will see the France-based company take control of the country’s optic fibre platform and manage it through a long term lease, and therefore serve Orange DRC subscribers with a high speed internet connection.
Orange, who launched its mobile operations in DRC in December 2012, is said to boast some three million subscribers in this mineral-rich Central African nation of 75 million people.
The signing ceremony took place in Kinshasa and was overseen by the country’s minister of Posts, Telecommunications and ICT, Kin-Kiey Mulumba.
Mulumba said signing the deal with Orange helped to correct the ‘anomaly’ and give the mobile operator the legal means to compete fairly with its rivals.
However, it is remains unclear what anomaly the minister was referring to, but some observers believed that the fact that Orange waited for more than a year for the deal to be signed constituted some sort of injustice according to the minister’s thinking.
The DRC’s landing station has been constantly described by critics as a ‘white elephant’ due to its inoperability since its inauguration by Kabila last year. Inaugurated by President Joseph Kabila in July 2013 The DRC’s fibre optic landing station, which is located in the West Coast city of Muanda is about 375 km of the capital Kinshasa.
Neither Placide Mbatika, boss of Société Congolaise des Postes et Telecommunications (SCPT), which acted on behalf of the Congolese government, nor Orange DRC CEO Jean Michel Garrouteigt would disclose the financial terms of the deal, which is estimated to reach billions of US dollars.
Mulumba said: “As soon as the Prime Minister gave permission to go ahead with the deal, I instructed the SCPT to sign it. This is to demonstrate that the fibre optic station is not a white elephant as some have said or written.” “The deal with Orange also demonstrates that the optic fibre platform is actually operating in our country, and it will enable the company’s three million subscribers to switch effectively to broadband,” he added
Paris-based Orange, formerly France Telecom, employs over 172 000 people worldwide and has about 226 million customers globally.
Source Issa Sikiti da Silva, in Kinshasa, DR Congo