The number of people in Rwanda owning mobile phones has decreased marginally to 8.803 million subscribers in April compared to 8.888 million subscribers in the previous month. According to the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) mobile phone subscription statistics for April, active numbers went down 0.04 per cent month-on-month, with MTN Rwanda facing the biggest drop of subscribers. The country’s leading telecom firm’s customers (active SIM cards) decreased to 3.984 million in April from 4.014 million in March, continuing the negative trend since the year started. Tigo also experienced a declined in active SIM cards to 3.095 million in April, down from 3.115 million in March. It was only the third market entrant, Airtel Rwanda that registered gains, with recorded active phone numbers increasing to over 1.723 million in April compared to 1.676 million subscribers in March. There was a general increase in the post-paid market segment, with subscription growing from 80,854 at the end of March to 84,592 in April. However, the pre-paid market segment recorded a negative growth from 8.726 million subscribers to 8.719 million subscribers during the period, indicating a total subscription of over 8.8 million for both pre-paid and post-paid market segments. Despite the drop in active numbers experienced by MTN and Tigo in April, Rwanda’s mobile phone penetration rate was unchanged at 78.2 per cent in April. business@newtimes.co.rw
