The number of fixed telephone subscriptions surged by 44.9 per cent during the third quarter of 2017, hitting 12,645 compared to 6,960 recorded in the second quarter of last year.

The latest Statistics and Tariff Information in Telecom, Media and Postal Service as of the Third Quarter report by Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), the growth was due to the "increased interest of Tigo other than Liquid and MTN in offering fixed telephones to corporate institutions”.

According to the report, Tigo Rwanda has the largest fixed telephone market share of 75 per cent as at September 30, 2017, followed by MTN with 15 per cent, while Liquid Telecom has 10 per cent and that of Airtel "almost zero” per cent.

Meanwhile, on-net traffic to rose by 15.10 per cent in the mobile telephone market segment, from 3,087,652,628 minutes in the second quarter of 2017 to 3,553,784,787 minutes the following quarter. "This increase is attributed to the various promotions that were conducted by operators during the period under review,” RURA notes. However, off-net voice traffic dropped by 19.65 per cent, to 37,795,120 minutes from 47,039,303 minutes.

Rwanda’s mobile telephone penetration rate is currently 75.5 per cent at November 30, 2017, or over 8.70 million active mobile telephone users.