Angola's Unitel has chosen wholesale carrier BICS to provide voice and roaming connectivity for a newly launched mobile network operator (MNO) in São Tome and Principe.

In July, a subsidiary of Angolan mobile phone operator Unitel, called Unitel-STP, launched its commercial telecommunications services in Sao Tome and Principe, an island located off the western coast of Africa..

Unitel's partnership with BICS on the island is intended to improve international connectivity for residents and visitors to the island in the Gulf of Guinea.

And BICS, in a statement, says it deployed full connectivity for international voice services, SMS messaging, signalling and GRX services within in two months. This has allowed residents and visitors to make international voice and roaming calls and use SMS and data roaming services.

BICS further says the scope of International connectivity services on the island will be expanded later this year when the company rolls out its 'Instant Roaming and OC Roaming Hub'.

"Unitel came to us earlier this year with their project of launching a new MNO in São Tome and Principe," said Clémentine Fournier, regional vice president Africa, BICS.

"Located on an island, Unitel wanted to offer their very first customers not only the ability to call and send SMS abroad, but also access to roaming services," said Fournier in a statement.

BICS has a growing presence in Africa as the company established three new offices on the continent last year.

In 2013, BICS also worked with Unitel Angola to establish the continent's first-ever LTE video roaming call system.

And in July this year, BICS also established a point-of-presence (POP) in Johannesburg to boost its internet traffic exchange in Africa and lower latency.