The third telecommunications operator in Senegal, the Sudanese company SUDATEL, has launched its activities in the West African nation under the Expresso brand name.

SUDATEL, which got its licence in September 2007 at a cost of US$200 million, will engage in all fields of telecommunications, including mobile telephony and data services.

Director General of Expresso-Sénégal, Emmanuel Hamez, told journalists here Monday that SUDATEL would use the CDMA technology "which has a capacity that is two or three times as big as the GSM used currently by its competitors''.

He said that the Sudanese company was already operating in Mauritania, Ghana and Nigeria, and that its ambition was to spread its tentacles into West Africa.

With an annual turnover of US$700 million, SUDATEL has a ''sound financial situation'', with a net annual income of more than US$150 million, Mr Hamez said.

He said that SUDATEL planned to connect three million subscribers to its mobile network and 150,000 subscribers to its fixed wireless system.

Source:africanmanager