The German telecommunications supplier Ericsson has announced its participation in the Millennium village project to provide connectivity in Africa especially in rural areas.

In this project, several African countries will be covered, targeting mainly Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Senegal, Mali, Ghana and Nigeria.

The project is due to start with Rwanda and it will be launched when the President and CEO of Ericsson Corporation Mr. Carl-Henric Svanberg visits the country to attend the "Connect Africa" meeting on October 29.

In the first phase of the partnership with Columbia University, Ericsson and Sony Ericsson will supply a number of mobile and fixed wireless phones to the communities in an effort to bring the benefits of connectivity to areas such as agriculture, education and infrastructure.

"Ericsson and Sony Ericsson have also co-developed a solar village charger for mobile phones that will be provided to each village. This new product concept is capable of recharging at least 30 mobile phone batteries per day and eight phones simultaneously for each village," said Svanberg.

Rwanda Mali Senegal Kenya