Venezuela plans to develop 4G network with help from Russia & China

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said his government is planning to invite Russian telecom companies, along with Chinese tech giants Huawei and ZTE, to develop a nationwide 4G telecommunication network in the country.

“I have ordered to make an investment and, together with China’s technologies, Huawei and ZTE technologies and the technologies of Russian companies, bring telecommunications to a new level and make a nationwide 4G network a reality in Venezuela to ensure Venezuela has fast communications, internet, and telephony,” President Maduro said in the speech during the country’s first Innovation, Development, Science and Technology Fair.

Development of the 4G network system will become a part of the Socialist Corporation of the Telecommunications and Postal Services Sector of Venezuela, according to Maduro. The president didn’t specify the range of potential investments into the project.

During Maduro’s latest visit to Russia, Moscow and Caracas reached a preliminary agreement on launching Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) in the Latin American state.

Since then, the political and economic situation in Venezuela has dramatically deteriorated as the US piled on new sanctions against the Bolivarian Republic. Most recently, Washington imposed a strict ban on Venezuela’s oil exports, the country’s key source of income.

After the Trump administration officially recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president, nearly $7 billion in assets belonging to Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and its US subsidiary Citgo have been seized. Moreover, Washington demanded foreign companies and banks to avoid dealing with Venezuela under the threat of secondary sanctions.

Meanwhile, half a world away, Chinese telecommunication major Huawei and 70 of its affiliates were included in the US trade blacklist due to the threat the company allegedly poses to the US national security. The decision forced Google, Intel, Qualcomm, Microsoft and several other companies to cut business ties with Huawei to comply with the requirements.

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