Rwanda’s third national telecom operator, Tigo, is currently carrying out a network test. This was confirmed by the company’s Brand and Public Relations Manager, Januario Mucyo.

The telecom operator which is set to commercially launch its network in November will be operating with the first three digit code of 072, followed by a 2 and another six digits (e.g.  0722443058).

The company is set to rollout 2G, 2.5G (GPRS), 3G (UMTS), and 3.5G (HSDPA), an advanced version of 3G. According to information availed to The New Times by a different source Tigo will also acquire the services of Altech Stream, for provision of Internet bandwidth.

Millicom outbid Zain in November 2008 to win the third national operator licence in Rwanda, the operator is also set to create a regional roaming network covering Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo where it operates under the same brand.

The Rwanda telecom market is currently dominated by MTN Rwanda and Rwandatel and during a recent interview with The Business Times, the company’s CEO, Alex Kamara, said that the increased competition will drive the operators to improve the level of service delivery.

Currently MTN Rwanda and Rwandatel, both have slightly above 2 million subscribers in total, 1.6 million and 500,000 respectively.

The brand Tigo was created and commercially launched in its Latin American operations in 2004. As a brand in Africa, Tigo has been here since 2006.

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