"When we came to the Tanzania city of Kilimanjaro to establish Viettel's branch, Halotel, just over two years ago, we faced with numerous challenges," Halotel's head of Technical Department, Hoang Trung Phong, recalled.
"We knew what a difficult task we were given to develop telecommunications in this poor region, half of which is mountainous terrain which has been abandoned by other telecommunications companies. We felt lost for some time."
High expectation of Tanzania people
In his visit to Vietnam in 2010, Tanzania Prime Minister, Mizenco Peter Pinda expressed his interest in learning about the fast development of Vietnam's telecommunications sector. He paid a visit to Viettel and invited the company to invest in his country.
"I heard good introduction about Viettel from our neighbouring Mozambique leaders," Tanzania Prime Minister said during his visit to Viettel. "After seeing Viettel's achievements in Mozambique, I'm sure that Viettel would be the most suitable investor who can help develop telecommunications in our country."
Although there have been many large telecommunications operating in Tanzania, over 4,000 poor villages here still had no access to mobile phone and internet before Halotel arrived.
Head of Ormelili Village in Kilimanjaro Province, Joseph Leizer, said that telecommunications service has helped changed their life a lot.
With Halotel mobile phone service, we can now also contact cattle traders more easily so life has become much better, the farmer added.
Big dreams
Ormelili is one among over 3,000 poor villages now have mobile phone coverage while many schools, hospitals, police stations have access to high speed internet.
Rashidi Ramadhan Hamasi is among over 2,200 Tanzania employed by Halotel who with Vietnamese staff have brought big changes to life of local people in the country.
"I highly appreciated what Halotel is doing for me and our country," said Hamasi. "My work at Halotel is really challenging but I've been improving a lot thanks to the help of Vietnamese colleagues. And now I have better and stable income."
Halotel's director, Nguyen Ngoc Hoanh, shared that they've had over three million Halotel mobile phone users in a year.
"We'll continue to try," the director said. "We want to help all Tanzania people to be able to connect to the world.
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