NAIROBI, July 4 (Xinhua) -- China's largest network and telecommunications equipment supplier Huawei Technologies has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Kenya to provide 3G equipment to its Safaricom, the leading mobile network operator in the country.

    A statement from Safaricom said on Friday that Huawei will provide modern and high quality equipment to enable Safaricom to have one of the best telecommunication infrastructure in the world.

    Huawei Technologies Vice President Kevin Tao said that like in Germany and other leading economies where Huawei has launched its unified 3G technology, the cost of telecommunications has reduced in the long-term.

    "Safaricom's subscriber base has increased to 11 million and there is potential for more market share penetration which makes the co-operation between us and Safaricom more meaningful," Tao said.

    Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said the mobile phone operator has invested a total of 30 million U.S. dollars in license fees and infrastructure development to launch the service.

    Joseph said the partnership for the 3G equipment has been reached after detailed analytical evaluation. "The 3G equipment are superior, high quality and of modern technology," Joseph said.

    "The 3G is the future. We need state-of-the-art products with the highest speeds," he added.

    Safaricom has already launched the broadband internet services with speeds of between 3.2 Megabytes per second (Mbps) and 7.2 Mbps in Mombasa and Nairobi.