TT awarded white spot project

Tunisie Telecom (TT) has been awarded a contract to deploy 3G/4G networks to so-called white spots (areas that are currently uncovered) by the Ministry of Communication Technology and the Digital Economy (Ministere des Technologies de la Communication et de l’Economie Numerique, Mincom). L’Economiste Maghrebin writes that TT was the sole operator to enter a bid for the project, the tender for which was opened in March this year. The rollout forms part of the government’s ‘Tunisia Digital 2020’ strategy, which aims to harness telecommunications and ICT to accelerate the country’s socio-economic development. Over the course of the six-phase programme TT will deploy wireless infrastructure to provide telephony and data services to a total of 180,000 inhabitants across 112 districts in 15 governorates, including 164 schools and 59 health centres. Access speeds of 4Mbps will be made available to residential subscribers, whilst data transfer rates will initially be 6.5Mbps for schools and hospitals but are scheduled to increase to 8Mbps during the second phase. The government will provide funding totalling TND46 million (USD18.3 million) for the project.