The Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) has invested US$280 million in an upgrade and expansion of its network, as well as new equipment, according to CEO Sydney Mupeta.

Mupeta said Zamtel has started its expansion in 100 of the 1009 sites spread across many rural areas of the country where mobile phone communication remains a problem.

The investment will ensure speeds of up to 240Mbps on the 4.5G network for fixed customers and on the 4G network for mobile based customers, according to Mupeta.

Until recently only MTN Zambia has a 4G network in the Southern African country.

"The future of Zamtel is very bright. We are on course with our US$280 million investment that will give us the best network coverage, best-in-class customers experience and best-in-class quality of service," Mupeta said.

He added that the company is on schedule to close 2017 with approximately 2.5 million subscribers after having recently crossed the 2 million subscriber mark.

Zamtel is involved in an aggressive subscriber acquisition drive and has developed a tariff plan that allows subscribers to call across networks at the same rate.

The company is the country's smallest operator while MTN Zambia is the largest with close to 6 million subscribers followed by Airtel Zambia with about 4 million customers.