The Vietnamese telecom group Viettel, operating in Burundi since March 2015 under the Lumitel flagship, announces having already reached one million subscribers after only four months of operation. In May, two months after starting operations, Tao Duc Thang, Vice-Director of the company, indicated that it already had 800,000 subscribers. A dynamism which demonstrates the great need still felt by the Burundi populations for telecoms services, despite the presence of many operators such as Econet Leo, Tempo Africell, Smart.

Burundi has a market penetration of only 31%. Lumitel wants to remedy to this situation and give everyone the opportunity to access the telecoms and ICT. The company which has already deployed around 800 telecom stations throughout the country wants to reach the threshold of 1,000 to be able to offer a network with the largest coverage. Its objective is to reach 95% of Burundians. Further to the extension of the radio network, Lumitel is planning to also deploy 5,000 km of fiber optic to enter the landline segment.

It was in February 2014 that the Viettel group was granted a global licence to supply telecoms services in Burundi. In an interview given to the newspaper Saigon Times during the same month, Lê Dang Dung, Deputy General Manager for the group had justified the choice of this country as a land of new investments with regards to the lack of big telecoms groups and opportunities to develop.