Rwanda to issue 3rd telecoms licence

Rosette Rugambwa, the director of the National Tourism Office (ORPTN) hands over mobile phones donated by MTN to former poachers in the national park who recently turned into farmers. Access to communications has helped change the lives of farmers in Rwanda.

Rwanda is expected to issue a third telecoms licence by September, President Paul Kagame said on Wednesday.

The central African nation of 10 million people has two privately-owned telecoms companies serving a combined subscriber base of nearly 700,000 people. With only 14 percent penetration, Rwanda says its telecoms market is ripe for expansion.

South Africa's MTN dominates the market with nearly 650,000 subscribers on its voice and data platforms. Former state-run Rwandatel, now owned by Libya's LapGreen, is the smallest with just 32,000 customers.

"The third licence for a telecoms operator should be concluded by September," Kagame told a news conference in Kigali.

Kagame said he had been informally approached by at least four companies seeking to invest in the telecoms sector once a third licence was issued. 

He also said his government had hired a Korean firm to roll out a new fibre-optic cable to serve mainly rural areas. Government would finance the new cable but planned to sell it to the private sector at a later stage, Kagame said. The new fibre-optics cable would cover between 1,700-2,000 kilometers, according to Rwanda's minister for information communications technology.




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