The number of Rwandans with mobile phones increased marginally in the month of June, the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority’s Active Mobile Telephone Subscription report for June indicates.

According to the monthly report, the total number of active mobile telephone subscriptions (90-day revenue generating subscribers) increased from 8,352,941 at the end of May 2017 to 8,368,432 at the end of June. This shows an increase of 0.19 per cent compared to the total number of active mobile telephone subscribers in May.

This rise pushed up Rwanda’s mobile penetration rate slightly to 72.58 per cent from 72.45 per cent over the month, RURA indicates.

The growth was due to the positive records by all the three telecom firms, MTN, Tigo and Airtel that gained marginally in June compared to the -0.28 they suffered in May. The total number of active subscribers for both Tigo and Airtel was up by 0.29 per cent to 3,262,099 from 3,252,765 subscribers (for Tigo). Airtel’s customers rose from 1,581,375 to 1,586,018 in June, while MTN registered a 0.04 per cent growth to 3,520,315 clients from 3,518,801 users in May.

Postpaid subscription increased from 118,853 at the end of May 2017 to 121,195 at the end of June 2017, while prepaid users inched up from 8,234,088 in May to 8,247,237 in June, the RURA report shows.