Connection comes calling

Just four years on after decades of conflict, South Sudan’s economy is still nascent and officials from the region — desperately under-developed when compared to neighboring Kenya and Uganda — have struggled to attract foreign investment. But mobile telecommunications have steamed ahead and the past year has seen hundreds of new towers erected across some of the swampiest parts of the south. Two companies, MTN and one of the world’s biggest operators, Kuwait-based Zain, have opened for business this year. Since Zain’s launch in April, the company has left all other operators behind in tower-construction, telecommunication ministry officials say. Zain’s CEO, Khaled Mutahdi, said the company planned to spend up to $150 million in the region. MTN have also embarked on rolling out from main towns to smaller population areas. Although only a miniscule number of offices have working land lines, most of Juba’s civil servants, businessmen and politicians move