When telecoms market regulator Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) released its third quarter report for 2010, on the status of Rwanda’s telecoms industry, one item on this report seemed to have indicated the fast changing nature of this sector.

RURA stated that "Rwandatel used to be the leading operator in internet service provision, but due to increase in number of GPRS subscribers MTN has emerged as the first with 85.6 percent of the total internet market share”.
Such a statement naturally, meant a lot of things to different observers of the telecoms industry as data segment was largely regarded as Rwandatel’s turf, while MTN was regarded as voice segment leader. Was Rwandatel loosing out in the industry in both the voice and data fronts as the first national operator?

The same report indicated that Tigo Rwanda, the new kid on the block had actually surpassed Rwandatel, by clinching second position, an enviable feat, considering that Tigo Rwanda was hardly a year old in the game.
The RURA report stated that within the voice segment Tigo Rwanda had amassed 19 percent of the market share, while Rwandatel had to contend with bringing up the rear with 15 percent of the market share.

While the voice segment witnessed very intense competition during the course of 2010 in which price wars led to tariffs plummeting to rock bottom levels, a prospect that eventually hurt revenue streams of some of the operators, the data segment, was without a doubt, going to be the new frontier of the competition within the sector as the year 2011 opened up.

It is this sort of new dynamic within Rwanda’s telecoms sector that The New Times talked to MTN Chief Operating Officer (COO) Andrew Rugege and Rwandatel’s new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Gbeu Tia Florentin, as the dominant players to get an insight into how both firms were planning to provide services within the data segment of the telecoms market, as the new year unfolds.

This thinking is attributed to the fact that data infrastructure which is key to enabling growth of businesses, both small and large, will form part of major revenue streams by operators in the telecoms sector this year.

The Sunday Times insight reveals that while Rwandatel is responding by deploying a $55 million programme that is meant to forestall MTN’s diversification into data segment, MTN says that it is premising its new game plan based on its strong local brand position and winning strategy for the last 16 years, within the local telecoms market apart from the fact that for the last 3 years it has been building a robust full data service infrastructure. Meaning that, the stage is set for a potentially intense battle for supremacy within data segment starting early this year, similar to the one that was fought within the voice segment last year.

Full Report on next Monday Business Times Magazine