South Korea’s KT Corp has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Rwanda Development Board to establish a public-private joint venture company. The new partnership will develop, construct and operate a nationwide Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, as well as provide wholesale LTE infrastructure services to customer-facing cellcos and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in Rwanda. KT will control the management of the firm, while the Rwandan government is set to provide financial and administrative support. Hon-Jin Kim, president of KT’s Global and Enterprise Business Group, said that construction of the LTE network will begin later this year. According to the Korea Times, KT and the Rwandan government are currently in talks to ‘narrow key differences such as the division of shares in the new firm’.
The announcement is the latest of a series of partnership deals between Rwanda and KT Corp. Since 2007 the South Korean telco has worked with the Rwandan government to launch wireless broadband ‘WiBro’ services and develop the country’s fibre-optic backbone.