ZTECorporation is to install the first wireless telecommunications system in Timbouctou,for centuries a by-word for the most remote places on earth.

ZTEhas signed an agreement to install Mali's first Wireless Local Loop(WLL)network for Sotelma,the state owned fix-line telecoms operator,which will expand an existing network in Mali's capital city Bamako and cover important centres in Maliincluding Mopti,Segou,Sikasso and Timboutcou.The agreement was signed during the time when China foreign minister Mr.Li Zhaoxing visited Maliand the agreement signing was witnessed by Mali's telecommunication minister Mr.Gaoussou Darabo and the Chinese ambassador to Mali Mr.Wei Wenhua.

WLLtechnology provided by ZTEenables a telecommunicaitons network to be set up without installing cables,avoiding the construction costs of poles,trenches and cables reaching the home of every potentialphone customer.

This network expansion follows the installation by ZTEof a 6 000 line CDMA2000 1XWLLin Bamako in 2005.

The network will enable homes in Timbouctou to communicate with the worldwide telephone system,removing in one stroke the centuries-old isolation of this town surrounded by hundreds of miles of desert.

″ZTEhas brought affordable modern telecommunications to many millions of people who were previously unable to make telephone calls or access the Internet.Bringing wireless telecommunications to Maliincluding Timbouctou is just the latest example of this,″said Miss Zhang Jie,ZTE's representative in Mali.

″Maliis a big country with a relatively small population and ZTE's CDMAWLLtechnology is idealfor telecommunications networks in environments like this.As China's largest wireless telecoms equipment exporter,ZTEhas extensive experience and proven technology to support Mali's telecommunications development.″

ZTE's CDMAtelecommunications products have successfully entered 60 countries through 100 operators'networks with 30 million lines around the world.ZTE Corporation has accordingly become one of the tier-one CDMA equipment manufacturers in the world.