14 June 2022

Africell, the US business and first wholly foreign-owned operator licensed to provide mobile services in Angola, has signed up two million subscribers just one month after launching its operations in the country.

The company officially started commercial operations in Angola April 7, joining Angola Telecom, Unitel and Movicel. The commercial launch comes 14 months after the US group was awarded Angola’s fourth unified telecommunications licence. It was granted as part of a national reform initiative to welcome more competition and innovation in key sectors of the economy, including telecommunications.

In February 2021, Africell settled the financial obligations related to its telecom licence. Since then, the company has invested more than U$150m in the market to build a high-quality 5G-capable network with an initial capacity of more than 6 million subscribers.

These various investments by the company have been made possible by the new investment-friendly climate that president João Lourenço has put in place.

With the introduction of new products and services, Africell plans to bring more competition to the Angolan telecom market. The company also aims to stimulate economic growth and social development by creating more than a thousand jobs, mostly for Angolans.