Mobile users have to wait a little longer to start enjoying Mobile Number Portability (MNP), a service that allows subscribers of one network to migrate to another network while maintaining their original phone number including the network code.

Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency(RURA) says that it is putting the move on a hold to allow current mobile operators to consolidate themselves in the market. The service was expected to be introduced this year.

"We have decided to postpone the introduction of the service to 2012 because the market is not yet ready for it; we also want the market to have a 60 percent (mobile) penetration,” RURA’s Director General, Regis Gatarayiha told Business Times in phone interview.
The country has 36.2 percent mobile penetration, the second lowest in the East African Community (EAC) region after Burundi.

"The bigger advantage for a subscriber comes in the form of better network connectivity with competitive tariff plans. Only those service providers who will deliver on these two fronts will retain a customer,” Gatarayiha explained.

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