Telecoms in rat race for voice market segment

Telecom services provider, Tigo Rwanda looks to be winning over the telecom voice market segment with this year’s first quarter report by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) showing its customers spent more time on calls compared to the other two telecoms operating in Rwanda. The report shows that between January and March this year, Tigo subscribers spent more than one billion minutes making calls, while over 30 million minutes were spent on incoming calls. This is longer talk-time compared to MTN and Airtel clients. Although MTN Rwanda boasts of a larger market share than Tigo, its clients spent slightly over 940 million minutes making calls, but received more calls than Tigo equal to 36.5 million minutes. Airtel Rwanda subscribers spend 205 million minutes making calls and over 12 million minutes receiving calls. Beata Mukangabo, the head of corporate, legal and industry affairs at RURA, said Tigo Rwanda subscribers spent more talk-time because the firm reduced its calling rates and had more promotions during the period compared to the other telecoms. Tigo charges its clients Rwf34 per minute for outgoing on-net calls, while MTN Rwanda charges prepaid and postpaid clients Rwf46 and Rwf35 per minute for on-net calls, respectively. Airtel Rwanda charges the lowest for on-net calls, at Rwf25 per minute for outside Kigali calls and Rwf31 per minute for in Kigali calls. On off-network calls, Tigo charges the same rate as MTN Rwanda, at Rwf60 per minute while Airtel charges Rwf62 for the first minute and Rwf46 per minute for the ensuing minutes, according to the report. business@newtimes.co.rw

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Telecoms in rat race for voice market segment