Mobile penetration rate increases to 41.6pct

Rwanda’s mobile penetration rate increased by 3.4 per cent in December 2011, to 41.6 per cent up from 40.2 per cent in September the same year.This was revealed in the latest Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency’s (RURA) telecom sector performance report.The figures represent 25 per cent increase from December 2010.As of December 2011, the major players in mobile telephony were MTN Rwandacell and TIGO Rwanda Ltd. The mobile penetration rate continues to increase while the fixed telephone subscriptions growth remains stagnant with a decreasing trend compared to last quarter status.“The overall target for mobile telephony by the end of 2011 which was 3,730,102 was already surpassed by 19 per cent,” the report shows.The number of subscribers on fixed network, on the other hand, slightly decreased in December 2011 to 38,901 down from 39,664 in December 2010. That represented a 2 per cent decrease as compared to the previous year.“The decrease was mainly due to Rwandatel’s decreasing number of subscribers for the fixed telephone network. It is also important to notice that until December 2011, TIGO did not have any subscriber on its fixed network,” the report stated.According to the report, MTN Rwanda is still leading in mobile subscribers with 65 per cent of the market share followed by Tigo which has 35 per cent. However, the market share of MTN has been decreasing for past three quarters in favour of TIGO.In terms of calling rates, the report indicates that TIGO is the cheapest in terms of international calls when considering the highest international rate. However, MTN emerges as the cheapest when considering the average tariff for all international destinations.“TIGO continues to be more expensive in terms of normal tariff for both on-net and off-net tariff, though the on-net tariff has never been applied due to the ongoing promotional tariff of Rwf10.” Following the recent interconnection rates review by RURA, MTN has subsequently reduced its retail off-net tariff, from Rwf90 to Rwf60 per minute , for prepaid customers, and from Rwf126 to Rwf60 for post-paid customer, which is a 33 per cent and 52 per cent reduction for prepaid and post-paid customers, respectively. TIGO is still the cheapest in terms of both normal tariff and promotional tariff on on-net sms (Rwf10 for MTN and Rwf3 for TIGO)“The fourth quarter of year 2011 experienced an increase of outgoing traffic at a proportion of 6 per cent, and 55 per cent for on-net, off-net and international calls respectively,” the RURA report indicates.Tigo’s Chief Executive Officer, Diego Camberos, told Business Times that the operator attributes the healthy growth in subscriber numbers to the company’s introduction of attractive promotions. “This shows that customers are happy with our products, we listen to them and we supply based on what our customers want,” Camberos said.Efforts to get a comment from MTN were futile.

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Mobile penetration rate increases to 41.6pct