Home Business & Tech MTN Improves 3G Network, as Competitors Merge 

MTN Improves 3G Network, as Competitors Merge 

by Daniel Sabiiti
11:20 pm

MTN Rwanda headquarters

MTN Rwanda has confirmed it is injecting $20million in network upgrade using a new technological upgrade to give 3G users better services indoor.

By using a new tech (U900), MTN said that all the 2G cells will now start offering 3G network and in areas where there is no 3G but where there is 2G will automatically get the 3G network coverage.

“The impact is that where there is both (2G and 3G), the 3G indoor coverage will improve but by no means will we stop offering 2G,” said MTN Rwanda Chief Executive Officer, Bart Hofker while appearing on CNBC Africa Power Breakfast show today.

For the side of Rwanda, it is quite a burden to pay for and to maintain three full mobile networks. So I think it is better if you go mobile networks…to good mobile networks, Hofker said.

MTN Rwanda continues to enjoy the lead in local telecos, at a time when country second (Tigo Rwanda) and third largest (Airtel Rwanda) telecommunication service providers were yesterday officially merged according to the law.

The combination of Tigo and Airtel could pose a threat in market share and capital but MTN Rwanda boosts of the growing customer value and revenue from products and services provided especially mobile money.

Before selling off shares Tigo had 3,387,682 customers, and Airtel had 1,628,510 subscribers in October 2017.

MTN Mobile Money has enjoyed unprecedented success since it was launched eight years ago, now registering about 12 million transactions monthly worth Rwf89 billion.

According to the 2017 Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) Quarter 2 report, Mobile Money transactions recorded were 291,901,031. MTN continues to lead Mobile Money with 1.3 million active subscribers and over 700,000 unique users on the ‘MoKash’ platform.

MTN Rwanda, which has listed its shares on the stocks (Crystal Telecoms) was last year fined Rwf37billions by RURA for breach of a contract, but the company says it managed to pay it off from the shareholder dividends.

In the meantime, on local bourse, both stock index and shares index went up to 1.08 and 0.15 point to close at 133.89 and 133.26 respectively with Bank of Kigali taking the show of the day to net a Rwf5 increase on the shares stakes after two days of the bourse remaining untouched.

1 comment

Kagame Geofrey January 26, 2018 - 3:01 pm

As an MTN customer, am so pleased for the 3G upgrade because am pretty sure I will now get to settle down at the expense moving from place to place trying to find a 3G covered area that operates every where. We look forward to seeing this strategy made feasible. Long Live Every Where You & l Go ??

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