Sudatel Telecom Group, Ltd

Telecommunications began in Sudan in 1859, using wired communications in Swakin town on the Red Sea coast, eastern Sudan; it was there that Britain established a line to link the Sudan to its other colonized countries in Central and Northern Africa and as far as India. In 1866, telegraph lines were set up linking Egypt and Sudan during the Turkish rule which were expanded to more than 3,000 miles.The first land telephones were installed in 1897 coinciding with the establishment of the Sudan Railway Corporation network. However, there was a further rapid growth when wireless telephones were introduced in 1919 and telephone centers were established in different Sudanese towns.In 1927, Khartoum’s telephone centers had a capacity of 600 lines. Later in the same year, telephone networks in the South of Sudan were also established. However, it was not until 1948 that a main trunk line was established between Khartoum and Cairo. Following which there was an expansion linking international trunk communications with the USA and Switzerland in the same year.