TELECOM NEWS: A-Link Technologies goes for dual SIM card phones to avert competition

With additional investments worth $0.5 million (Rwf283.7 million), the Chinese company plans to assemble laptops and radios as well A-Link Technologies, a Chinese firm with a manufacturing plant in Kigali, will soon start assembling dual SIM card phones. Information availed to The New Times said that this is aimed at increasing its product line. The company has been manufacturing phones with a single SIM card. Edward Yin, the President of A-Link Technologies said that the change to dual SIM card is to cushion competition emerging from the local telecom operators. “Telecom operators avail cheap imported handsets on the market which affects us,” he said. “Since their intentions are to increase the sale of SIM cards and airtime, they mind less about prices of handsets. Yet we mind about the number of handsets sold,” Yin added.MTN Rwanda introduced the ZTE ( locally known as karasharamye) which costs Rwf14,000 whereas its competitor, Rwandatel launched GSM enabled phone manufactured by Huawei in China at Rwf11,000. The cheapest A-Link Technology phone, the ‘ALIRA A300’ costs Rwf19,900. Some of the other ALIRA branded phones are programmed with Kinyarwanda software to the advantage of Rwandans who only use the native language. “We therefore opted to produce dual SIM card phone in order to avoid competition,” Yin added. The effects of competition have also halted the company’s plans to increase on its output. Management had targeted to increase the production from 200 to 600 handsets daily. However Yin said that though 200 handsets are produced, on average daily, production depends on the market. A-Link Technologies started its operations last year following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Rwanda Information and Technology Authority (RITA), now part of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB). Since it started operations with an initial investment worth $0.5 million (Rwf283.7 million), over 6,000 handsets have been produced. With additional investments worth $0.5 million (Rwf283.7 million), the Chinese company plans to assemble laptops and radios as well. The two projects (laptop and radio) are expected to be on the market by end of July this year. Management predicts that a laptop, to be called ‘A-Link’, will cost about $400 (Rwf226,960). This is $216 (Rwf113,480) less than the current cost of a cheaper branded laptop like HP, Acer or Dell that averagely costs Rwf350,000 ($616). A-Link is an affiliate to China link Digital and Technology Company Limited, also a Chinese based electronics company. After Rwanda, the company is targeting the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region. Ends

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TELECOM NEWS: A-Link Technologies goes for dual SIM card phones to avert competition