The country’s mobile telephone penetration rate has increased marginally to 75.2 per cent in October, up by 0.7 per cent from 74.5 per cent the previous month, according to the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) Active Mobile Telephone Subscriptions report for October.

The report indicates that the total number of active mobile telephone subscriptions rose from 8,592,544 the previous month to 8,675,826 at the end of October 2017. This is an increase of one per cent during the reporting period.

Postpaid subscriptions increased from 128,156 in September to 128,704 at the end of October, while prepaid subscriptions rose to 8,547,122 as of October 31 from 8,464,388 at the end of September.

Tigo Rwanda was biggest gainers, attracting 68,555 new users to 3.45 million subscribers from 3.38 million people in September. This is a 2 per cent rise, which brought the firm to just one percentage point behind market leaders, MTN. MTN gained 0.3 per cent last month to 3.58 million customers from 3.57 million users the previous month.

However, the telecom firm’s market share dropped by one percentage point to 41 per cent from 42 per cent, while Tigo’s inched up to 40 per cent from 39 per cent previously, the RURA report shows. Airtel Rwanda tails with 19 per cent of the market. The firm’s customers were up by 0.2 per cent to 1.63 million compared to 1.62 million in September.

Philip Amoateng, the Tigo Rwanda chief executive officer, attributed the positive growth in subscriber numbers to customer confidence in the quality of the services the firm offers.

"We also have a highly motivated sales and distribution team across the country,” he added while commenting on the gains.

The telecom firm had 36.5 per cent market share in December 2016.