South Africa’s Vodacom has won a deal to roll-out telecoms services to over 400 villages and one million people in Tanzania.

The deal is part of a tender issued by Tanzania’s Universal Communication Services Access Fund (UCSAF) as part of the Tanzania Communications Infrastructure and e-Government Project (RCIP Tanzania).

In turn, the deal is funded by the International Development Association, according The Guardian newspaper in Tanzania. The value of the tender; though, has not been disclosed.

But the signing of it comes as Tanzania grapples with rolling telecom services particularly to underserviced rural areas.

According to BuddeComm research, the Tanzanian government has allocated $10.8 million to improving rural telecom infrastructure.

However, Tanzania has among the most competitive telecom sectors in Africa as the country boasts two fixed-line operators and eight operational mobile networks.

As a result, the East African country’s mobile penetration rate stands at 75% of its close to 48 million population, according to BuddeComm research.