US-Backed Consortium Beats China's for Massive 5G Contract Blanketing Ethiopia

"A U.S.-backed consortium beat out one financed by China in a closely watched telecommunications auction in Ethiopia — handing Washington a victory in its push to challenge Beijing's economic influence around the world," reports the Wall Street Journal: The East African country said Saturday it tapped a group of telecommunications companies led by the U.K.'s Vodafone Group PLC to build a nationwide, 5G-capable wireless network.

The group had won financial backing for the multibillion-dollar project from a newly created U.S. foreign-aid agency. The agency offers low-interest loans, but the financing comes with a condition: the money won't be used to buy telecom equipment from China's Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. Washington considers both a spying threat, an accusation the companies deny...

The telecom license auction in Ethiopia took on wider geopolitical significance amid heightened competition between the U.S. and China over key technological pursuits, from the rollout of 5G to chip manufacturing. "The U.S. and China are fighting a proxy war in Ethiopia for influence," said Zemedeneh Negatu, chairman of Fairfax Africa Fund LLC, a U.S.-based investment firm that focuses on Africa. After all but shutting out Huawei in the U.S., Washington has become more assertive about challenging Beijing's economic footprint overseas. It is using new financial tools to win influence and ensure that strategic assets in foreign countries stay in friendly hands...

Backing the Vodafone bid was the International Development Finance Corp., or DFC. The U.S. government-funded agency was created in December 2019 with a goal of offering alternatives to cheap, Chinese financing for foreign infrastructure projects... U.S. law also prohibits its loan from being used to buy Huawei or ZTE equipment, though one person familiar with the matter said it is possible the Vodafone-led bid could still buy some Chinese gear because of the project's size and cost.

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[account_deleted]

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[account_deleted]

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[tomhath]

The market is never "free", anywhere. China's unfair trade practices make it necessary for other governments to get involved.

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[account_deleted]

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[AmiMoJo]

Buying contracts is a classic move in capitalism. Use capital to bid below cost, so you can get a foothold and keep competitors out.

I guess Nigeria got a bargain, assuming they don't mind the NSA 0wning their 5G network.

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[K. S. Kyosuke]

The US won Nigeria, too? In any case, it's not really a choice when it comes to spying - you'll most likely be spied on anyway (unless you go the E2E encryption route).

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[AmiMoJo]

Pay-to-win isn't really a win though.

Not my handout

[will4]

> a newly created U.S. foreign-aid agency. The agency offers low-interest loans

A US citizen paid handout never to be repaid loan to a soon to be overthrown African government.

Look into how many world bank loans are actually repaid in full and on time at market interest rates.

This is just a large handout to the leaders of that country and buying their friendship for awhile

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[tsqr]

You might want to brush up a bit on China's economic activities in Africa before getting too worked up over US government practices in the region.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

Ethiopians arent negros, stop looking at your areshole when you make your next comment.

Re: This is a win for the good guys

[loufoque]

Do you have problems with reading comprehension?

Ethiopia is the one doing the paying in this deal.

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[AK Marc]

The US is up to good? Would you like a list of democracies the US has overthrown or invaded? Or would you start arguing how a democracy who selects someone you don't like is "not a *real* democracy".

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

Overthrown or invaded , what about supported as in the dictators around the world that the US actively supports today. Half or more of the worlds biggest aresholes are there largely thanks for the USA. Im thinking of the Saudis, the Gulf States and thats just the start.

Bullshit, you don’t think at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeh, look at all those countries China has been at war or bombed since WW2, compared with the US. Facts are very clear on this, the warmonger is plainly the US. Reality so inconvenient to the far right fucktard.

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[dowhileor]

No, just the injustice of the Communist System against their own people? And before the Communists took over the injustice of previous system against their own people?

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> Not to mention their aggressiveness in the South China Sea stealing land from anyone and everyone.
Building islands is not stealing, because nobody owned the under water land before hand.
NYC for example has reclaimed land, theres nothing ILLEGAL about doing this.
> Invasion of Xinjiang
How can you invade your own land ?
Your list has a best 5 countries, thats far less misery than all the fundamentalist dictators America has supported since WW2.
Please go make a list of all the middle eastern

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[WindBourne]

Building islands is not stealing, because nobody owned the under water land before hand.

Wrong. Each of those islands are PURPOSELY built in areas owned by other nations. The UN has said it over and over and over.

How about listing the dictators that America has supported for the last 30 years? Oh wait. Can't really list any? Yeah. Just what I thought.
BTW, Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc are NOT dictatorships. They are KINGDOMS. Big difference.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> Wrong. Each of those islands are PURPOSELY built in areas owned by other nations. The UN has said it over and over and over.
The UN has not made any official statement on the matter. You are confusing representatives at the UN, who might have said something. Feel free to share a link to un.org that backs your statement.

> Oh wait. Can't really list any? Yeah. Just what I thought. BTW, Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc are NOT dictatorships. They are KINGDOMS. Big difference.
A kingdom is an absolute dictat

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[WindBourne]

Page 27-38. And this was just for islands that CHina made in the Philippines controlled areas. [un.org]

Here is a good description of why your nation is building these islands, in spite of treaties.:
The main purpose of China’s artificial islands is not to help fight a war against the United States. Beijing’s primary strategy in the South China Sea is to use civilian and paramilitary pressure to coerce its Southeast Asian neighbors into abandoning their rights. Thanks to the facilities on its island [warontherocks.com]

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> Here is a good description of why your nation is building these islands, in spite of treaties.:
Lets firstly get a few facts out of the way.
i never said i was Chinese and i never said i supported them.
I was only pointing out what they did is legal under international law. Nobody owned those under water formations and the chinese did what anybody else could do.
> Here is a good description of why your nation is building these islands, in spite of treaties.:
I have never made any statement abou

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> Page 27-38. And this was just for islands that CHina made in the Philippines controlled areas. [un.org]
You should learn to read.
For starters page 27 is talking about Iran. The word China or South Sea doesnt even remotely appear >COMMUNICATION BY STATES Iran (Islamic Republic of)1 Note verbale from the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, 21 April 2016 >

Page 28 is just a list of countries.
> OTH

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

Of cours ehe does, now he wants to pretend that the Phillipines own all the south China Sea, which basically means the Phillippines has now done "a China" and taken the areas belonging to Vietnam, China and other nations.

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[WindBourne]

Here are China's direct military intervention. [wikipedia.org]
This does not cover all of their many covert activities in selling weapons, goods, to dictatorships.
Reality so inconvenient to the far left marxist fucktards.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

Go read about Operation Unthinkable on wiki, where Churchill wanted to continue all the way to Moscow and eliminate Stalin. Guess which side was opposed to removing Stalin. Franklin actually like Stalin and thought Winston was nuts. Given America had the bomb, they could have threatened Uncle Joe, and what coul dhe have done ?

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[WindBourne]

You are lying about history. FDR HATED Stalin but got along after stalin switched sides from supporting the Germans. And FDR, like Poppa Bush in Desert Storm 1, had given promises on what we would do and did just that, no more.

I find it interesting that you continue to blast America for going after dictatorships and terrorists today, but think that we should have used a bomb on stalin.
You are 1 majorly fucked up individual.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> You are lying about history. FDR HATED Stalin but got along after stalin switched sides from supporting the Germans. And FDR, like Poppa Bush in Desert Storm 1, had given promises on what we would do and did just that, no more.
FDR gave away information that Churchill gave in strict confidence because he trusted Uncle Joe. Go read Operation Unthinkable on wiki and then come back and apologise.

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[WindBourne]

Huh. You mean THIS operation unthinkable? The one that STARTED being planed in may 1945, 1 month after FDR's death? THAT operation? [wikipedia.org]
And as to who gave away information to the commies, well:

In June 1945 senior Soviet Army commander Marshal Georgy Zhukov suddenly ordered Soviet forces in Poland to regroup and prepare their positions for defence.[citation needed] According to Edinburgh University professor John Erickson, Operation Unthinkable helps to explain why he did it.[citation needed] If the plans of the operation had been transmitted to Moscow by the Cambridge Five, that would explain the sudden orders to regroup and prepare for defence, however, it is just as possible that it was Soviet mistrust of Western Allies. If the Soviets had indeed known that the Western Allies were planning a possible attack, the element of surprise would have been lost before operations against the Soviets even began, further reducing the chances of Operation Unthinkable's success.

And was a dead FDR part of that Cambridge 5? Somehow, I doubt it.

Gads, you must actually be Caffeinated Bacon. That dipshit is as much of a lair as you are.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

Google "fdr yalta spying" there are plenty of interesting reads that show what and how fdr gave considerable advantages to Stalin.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> How "Uncle Joe" Bugged FDR: The Lessons of History - CIAhttps://www.cia.gov static Uncle-Joe-Bugged-... PDF by G Kern Cited by 11 — 1943) and again at Yalta (February 1945), he stayed in Soviet quarters and ... proposed by FDR and Churchill because he had a well-established spy network

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

A large part of why America is unpopular in the middle east is because America has helped just about all the murdering barstard dictators. Hard to be popular when you arm and defend people like the Saudis etc. Lets not forget uncle Saddam, etc.

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[dowhileor]

Russia and Israel planned to Invade the Middle East to liberate all the oil money. So again, a choice was put before the whole world...

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

yeh because war is free, the free oil from Iraq still is far less than the cost of the war.

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[WindBourne]

Really? How exactly are the states supporting dictators? Selling weapons? You mean to counter the weapons that Russia and China continue to sell to Iran that is then used in terrorist attacks in Europe, Israel, etc?
The states did not support Syria, Iraq, Libya, etc. That was all done by Europe, Iran, Russia, China, etc.
But hey, why let facts get in the way of your trolling?

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> Really? How exactly are the states supporting dictators? Selling weapons? You mean to counter the weapons that Russia and China continue to sell to Iran that is then used in terrorist attacks in Europe, Israel, etc?
THe worlds main funders for all terrorism today and for the past 50 years has always been the Saudis. If there was no Saudi Royal Family world terrorism would have a fraction of the funds it has today. Irans terrorist activities and funding is nothing compared to the saudis.

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[WindBourne]

Saudis have done very little in comparison to ANY of Iran, USSR, China, etc.
Iran is all over the world, like the others, spreading their weapons and funding terrorists.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> Saudis have done very little in comparison to ANY of Iran, USSR, China, etc.
Tahts simply untrue, the Saudis spend Billions every year on keeping fundamentalism alive. They have spent far more than the USSR ever spent in any form spreading evil communism. Thats hundreds of billions.
Africa is filled with fundamentalist terrorists running around causing havoc and violence on locals, and most of those get their arms and monies from the Saudis and Gulf States. Where do you think the Somali terrorists ge

Re: This is a win for the good guys

[dwater]

Why do you say that? It's not like they're even communists.
This is a win for the Etheopians and they have China to thank for it, even if they didn't choose China in the end.
Now, of course, they have to put up with American spying, which is well proven and quite sophisticated. Good luck there.

Gear

[jjaa]

Wait... where will Vodaphone get all the equipment again? I missed that part, it might be obvious, but somehow I'm sceptical it made in-house...

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[k0t0n]

There are several telecom equipment manufacturers based in Europe and Asia, though all of them have assembly lines and joint ventures in China

Re: Gear

[k0t0n]

Except Samsung

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

IF machines do most of the work, why do they need to move their assemblies to China ? Surely the people barely do more than just putsomething in a box and maybe plug in a few cables. It cant cost that much to pay say a Korean to do that ...

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[dwater]

The supply chains are much more efficient in China... Best in the world.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

Supply chains ?
How relevant is that when you are mass producing circuit boards and chips ? The cost of the silicon is a minor percentage.

Re: Gear

[jjaa]

Exactly what i was thinking - the brands may not be chinese, they may own the IP, etc... but in the end China will get a cut one way or the other. Because cost optimisation and free market :)

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[Aighearach]

where will Vodaphone get all the equipment?

Samsung, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm, etc.

I missed that part... but somehow I'm sceptical

When you know you're ignorant, remember you're ignorant.

Being ignorant doesn't mean you know what is happening by guessing.

again?

So you're saying you were an ignorant douche about this in the past, but you still didn't learn the answer?

Re: new s ?

[MrL0G1C]

You're off your rocker if you think China and USA are equally bad, China is currently committing genocide, it's a capitalist dictatorship that locks up journalists, it has 're-education camps'. I'm not a fan of the USA but China is a whole different ballgame.

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[MrL0G1C]

WTF are you drivelling on about? It's not actual education you fool it's brain washing. And you really have to stretch reality to say the US has slave labour. China has actual forced labour. Whilst the US criminal system is abhorrent at least in the US the people actually committed crimes unlike in China were making too many trips at the wrong time of day or criticising the system will get you locked up for years.

Yes the US is a shitty war monger but at least it has actual freedom unlike China where you're

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[dowhileor]

What immigrant status has been defended in China ever?

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[Growlley]

As opposed to America - Funding, enabling and commiting genocide since 1945.

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[WindBourne]

Yes, but these are paid trolls here.

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[sysrammer]

Well, for a US audience, no. It's hard enough keeping up with 50 states. BTW, is "American" being defined as a race now? It's hard to keep up with that, too.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> Well, for a US audience, no. It's hard enough keeping up with 50 states. BTW, is "American" being defined as a race now? It's hard to keep up with that, too.
Only caring about Americans and not giving a shit about "others" is racism, given theres no black race, race is just a descriptive term.

American Tech?

[Growlley]

More likely it's 4g falsely called 5g.

Export Subsidy , free or cheap export loans

[Canberra1]

Export subsidies and free export finance insurance are not new. And it is likely that the US taxpayer will be on the hook, should the loan go into default, or never paid back.Unlike wheat or Corn, a lot of this end gear will be made in China, from antenna's, weatherproof , UV safe plastic cases, power supplies, and electrical cables etc. And maybe Chinese made face recognition security systems, and the hard drives(nearly all made in China). You can guess where the handsets will be made. One does not know ho