halotel was launched in october 2015 and deployed in all 26 tanzanian regions. this was viettel's fourth investment in africa after movitel, lumitel and nexttel in mozambique, burundi and cameroon respectively. viettel started investing in the country in 2011 and planned $736 million in investment after the then president jakaya kikwete made a state visit to vietnam. the goal of the government was to encourage rural mobile connectivity in the country where and the government saw fit to increase competition by allowing viettel to operate in the country.