Societe des Telecommunications Internationales du Tchad (SotelTchad) is a Chadian telecommunications

parastatal A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...

providing landline domestic and international

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

service, as well as

Internet service An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

. SotelTchad was created in 2000, when domestic phone services were detached from the postal service. The government initially stated its intention to privatize the parastatal through international bidding, but this was put on hold."Chad Country Commercial Guide - FY 2005"
by Vincent Spera , U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service and U.S. Department of State (hosted by Industry Canada)] Company advertisements in late 2000 stated that there were 10,260 telephones and 1,020 Internet subscribers in the country. In 2001, SotelTchad agreed to a partnership with ITXC to provide international phone service via

Internet telephony Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

However, by 2005

cellphone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

users on private networks vastly outnumbered the users of landlines. Privatized in 2010 and sold to the Libyan company Lap Green, the Chadian state subsequently regained control of the company.

Notes and references

Telecommunications companies of Chad Government of Chad {{telecom-company-stub