The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) have signed an agreement to co-sponsor a pilot project that aims to bring low-cost telephone and Internet broadband services via WiFi technology to the central province of Quang Ngai.

Private US partners including the World Resources Institute, SRA, Solitech and Intel, as well as State-own Vietnam Electricity (EVN), also committed to support the initiative, the US Embassy in Vietnam said in a press release on June 25.

The parties agreed in principal to develop a WiFi-based community broadband network built off EVN’s fibre network in three communes and to provide 300 VoIP phones and service applications for a wide range of public and private uses.