Some 260,000 people from 30 rural communities in Mozambique are expected to benefit from the cellphone network service for the first time, following a connection project launched by the government on Thursday.

The project is funded by the government’s Universal Access Service Fund, and will be implemented by one of the country’s main telecom operators, Movitel.

In its fifth phase, the Cellphone Network Extension Project is evaluated at about 7 million U.S. dollars and will benefit communities covering almost every province in the country.

The project, started in 2008, has already benefited about two million people and created 180 points of mobile network provision in its previous phases.