11/17/08

SOURCE: Millicom International Cellular


Millicom International Cellular:

Millicom Wins Tender for Mobile License in Rwanda

 
NEW YORK & STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Nov 17, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Millicom International Cellular S.A. (Millicom)(NASDAQ:MICC)(STO:MIC), the global telecommunications company, today announces that it has been successful in the tender for the 3rd national mobile license in Rwanda against three other bidders.

Millicom will hold 87.5% of the equity in a newly created joint venture company in partnership with Marathon Corporation, an established local company with numerous business interests in Rwanda. The joint venture will pay US$ 60m dollars for the 15 year license.

Rwanda has some 10 million inhabitants and is a country of some 26,000 sq.km, located between Millicom's existing operations in DRC and Tanzania, giving potential to create synergies between the three businesses over time.

Mobile penetration in Rwanda is low, at some 9%, and there are currently only two operators: Rwandatel and MTN, of which MTN is the dominant operator with around 1 million subscribers.

The structure of the mobile industry presents Millicom with the opportunity to build a business with a significant market share.

Rwanda has a well developed road and grid infrastructure and a government with ambitions to continue investments, including in ICT, with the development of telecoms, internet and broadband services in the coming years.

Millicom's license win contributes to this development program.

The country's population is very young and the economy is based on agriculture, trade and mining. In addition, gas extraction has recently started in Lake Kivu.

Marc Beuls, President and CEO of Millicom commented, "We are very pleased to have been awarded the third mobile license in Rwanda.

It is a country with great potential for mobile telephony as it is a very densely populated country with an extremely low mobile penetration which will enable us to build out a network quickly and economically, and its strategic position between our operations in Tanzania and DRC offers potential operational synergies.

Rwanda will become Millicom's eighth country in Africa and will strengthen our overall position in the continent which, we believe, will be the fastest growing part of Millicom's business in the coming years."

Millicom International Cellular S.A. is a global telecommunications group with mobile telephony operations in 16 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

It also operates cable and broadband businesses in five countries in Central America. The Group's mobile operations have a combined population under license of approximately 291 million people.

This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" with respect to Millicom's expectations and plans, strategy, management's objectives, future performance, costs, revenues, earnings and other trend information.

It is important to note that Millicom's actual results in the future could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements depending on various important factors.

Please refer to the documents that Millicom has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including Millicom's most recent annual report on Form 20-F, for a discussion of certain of these factors.

All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Millicom on the date hereof.

All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Millicom International Cellular S.A., any Millicom International Cellular S.A. employees or representatives acting on Millicom's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above.

Millicom does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

Visit our web site at http://www.millicom.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com

SOURCE: Millicom International Cellular
Millicom International Cellular S.A., Luxembourg 
Marc Beuls
President and Chief Executive Officer
Telephone: +352 27 759 327
or
Shared Value Ltd, London
Andrew Best
Investor Relations
Telephone: +44 7798 576 378





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Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   +250-08470205
Home: +250-55014140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://www.cepgl.blogspot.com
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