Movitel officially launches as Mozambique’s third mobile operator

Mozambique’s third mobile network operator Movitel has commercially launched its services, although it has been offering its prepay cards from shops for the past three weeks.

Movitel is a consortium formed between Vietnam’s Viettel and SPI, a holding company of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party.

Movitel was granted its licence in November 2010 at a cost of US$29 million and has subsequently deployed 1,800 base stations across the country.

The company says that it has invested nearly US$120 million in its network.

Mozambique’s incumbent networks are Vodacom and M-Cel.