VIENTIANE - The Lao Telecommunications Company (LTC) and Nokia Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd have agreed to enhance cooperation on LTC network expansion, strategy and 5G alliance.
The LTC network expansion project contracts and memorandum of understanding of strategic cooperation and 5G alliance were signed yesterday between LTC Director General Mr Thavone Somsakoun and NSB General Manager Mr Mike Wang.
The executive management of both parties attended the ceremony and witnessed the critical moment.
According to the contracts, NSB will provide LTC with 5G FDD LTE product, IP project and services to support LTC’s network extension deployment and signal coverage improvement.
The project will enable LTC to take a significant step forward to seamless coverage and perfect network performance, and therefore provide high quality service and excellent experience for users.
The memorandum of understanding will substantially consolidate the cooperative relations between LTC and NSB. NSB promises to provide the industry-leading end-to-end telecommunications solutions and full services to LTC.
The two parties are expected to cooperate in the areas of 5G, NB-IOT, VR, CLOUD etc in addition to 2G/3G/4G.
“We highly appreciated NSB’s elaborate efforts to our network construction over the last two decades. The signature of the 5G alliance memorandum not only marks the successful cooperation with Nokia Shanghai Bell that will move forward to new areas, but also Lao Telecommunications Company will never stop pursuing advanced technology and providing a perfect experience to our end users,” said Mr Thavone.
“It’s our great honour to become LTC’s first full range of solutions supplier. NSB will provide Nokia world-leading telecom products and solutions to assist the smooth evolution of LTC’s network to the new generation,” Mr Mike Wang said.
LTC started cooperation with NSB in the 1990s. The two parties have formed a long-standing and stable partner relationship. The signing of new extension project contracts and 5G strategic alliance memorandum of understanding strengthens LTC’s market position and will boost their business development.
LTC currently boasts over 1.5 million mobile phone subscribers, and 40,899 fixed line users. The 2G Winphone network includes 532,316 users, while 3G and 4G data subscribers make up some 895,972 people.
This year, the company hopes to increase its market share and expand its customer base to 257,218 subscribers, according to a report heard at the annual meeting of the company.
While Lao Telecom’s earnings last year were 1.81 trillion kip, up by nine percent on the previous year with 365 billion kip in profit, the company hopes to reach a net profit of 422 billion kip this year.