mtn rwanda subscribers will soon start enjoying enhanced and more efficient connectivity, thanks to ongoing network upgrade.

The country’s leading telecom firm recently embarked on a nationwide upgrade exercise for existing 2G to 3G bandwidth networks.

MTN Rwanda chief executive officer Bart Hofker, said the $20 million (about Rwf17.2 billion) upgrade will help boost connectivity across the country.

"It is also designed to cater for the growing demand of voice and data usage across the country,” said Hofker.

The CEO explained that the exercise will see the telecom firm replace all the existing networks with "new and more up to date technologies” to be able to improve communication.

MTN subscribers have been complaining about the firm’s poor network, but Hofker attributed the challenge to "overload” brought about by the growth in the user numbers”.

The telecom firm controls 42 per cent of the market share and has 3.65 million subscribers.

Recently, network users have been experiencing signal problems in some parts of the country, with many reporting poor connectivity for both voice and data.

These challenges should soon be history as the upgrading exercise will improve both data and voice quality and boost customer experience in terms of speed and quality, as well as spur efficiency in service delivery, according to Hofker.

Last year, MTN invested about $18 million in network upgrade.

Mohamad Kiwan, the chief technology and information officer at MTN Rwanda, explained that the investment is a top priority and in line with government’s overall objective of becoming an ICT-based economy.

"MTN decided to take the extra step in network transformation to move it to the next level in terms of experience, capacity and services. We are also doing that because we want to support the country’s vision of ensuring increased access and coverage,” said Kiwan.

Rwanda’s mobile telephone penetration rate is at 75.5 per cent, indicating over 8.70 million subscribers.