Airtel Rwanda has registered more than one million new subscribers on its Voice Over 4G (VoLTE) – a wireless communication standard that allows users to make voice calls and send SMS messages over a 4G network.

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The increase recorded within a month since its launch means that the telco swapped 30 per cent of voice 3G traffic to using VoLTE, according to company officials.

Simply put, the transition means that a one-hour nonstop voice call is no longer charged per 60 minutes but consumes 15MB 4G data, which is equivalent to five photos that can be downloaded within seconds.

Airtel Rwanda is the first telco to launch this technology in Rwanda where its bundles include unlimited calls, with options like 1GB of daily data for Rwf3,000, offering users the convenience of uninterrupted connectivity without per-minute charges.

Emmanuel Hamez, the Airtel Rwanda Managing Director, explained that by embedding voice calls into data bundles, the service lowers the overall cost of voice communication, with calls accounting for only one percent of total data traffic, which allowed customers to enjoy connectivity at no additional cost.

He emphasized that this was a move towards becoming an ‘internet operator’, rather than just a ‘telephone operator’, attributing the success to the National Broadband Policy that opened the 4G network market to competition.

"The roadmap is aligned with the broadband policy which aims to phase out the old technology, we are preparing to phase out 3G technology before the end of 2025 and 2G before the end of 2026,” he said.

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"It is the role of mobile operators to prepare for this transition and this is what Airtel Rwanda did this year by converting 100 per cent of its network to 4G, covering 95 per cent of Rwanda’s population.”

This was also coupled with the participation in the Connect Rwanda 2.0 initiative of providing affordable smartphones to Rwandans, especially those in rural areas, and as a result, 50 percent of Airtel customers own smartphones, rising from 10 percent in one year.

When it comes to internet quality, Hamez said that while it’s not perfect yet, the level of quality has significantly improved over the years, and much more is being done to improve it in some areas that have not yet received fiber connectivity.

"Generally, the speed of internet speed has significantly increased to more than 10mbps to an average of 30mbps to 50mbps...we have modernized our network and extended the capacity not only on the core network but also on the radio frequency.”

He added that putting voice over 4G will allow the phase out of other networks and allocate the radio frequency of 3G to 4G and improve its quality.