Mozambique's third mobile phone operator, Movitel, has so far connected 205 state-owned schools to the Internet, according to a press release from the Ministry of Education.

The schools connected include secondary schools, teacher training colleges, technical and professional education institutes, and higher education establishments.

In its partnership with the Ministry, Movitel plans to connect over 500 educational institutions to the Internet by the end of March. This is just the first part of a plan to connect, free of charge, 4,500 educational establishments to the Internet.

This activity falls within the Ministry's Technological Plan for Education, which is intended "to create an integrated strategic vision for the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into the educational system and to align the main stakeholders, public and private, around a common vision and purpose".

Movitel is a joint venture between Viettel, a telecommunications company owned by the Vietnamese Defence Ministry, and SPI, the holding company of Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party. The Movitel licence was awarded in November 2010, and cost the company 29 million US dollars.

Movitel announced the official start of its operations in January, throughout the country, on an experimental basis. It claims that it has set up a network consisting of 1,000 base stations, using second and third generation (G2 and G3) technology, and 5,500 kilometres of fibre-optic cable.