Rwanda LTE Coming by Government-KT Corp. Joint Venture

Rwanda is building a new fourth generation Long Term Evolution network in a 25-year joint venture with KT Corporation of South Korea. KT Corp. is contributing $140 million in investment. 

The Rwandan government is contributing 3,000 kilometers of long haul optical fiber, spectrum and a wholesale-only operator licence. Additional financing will be added in the form of debt and vendor financing. 

The project aims to provide LTE broadband coverage to 95 percent of Rwanda’s 12 million population within the three years.

More than half the population of Rwanda now uses mobile phones. There were in March 2013 about 6,039,615 mobile subscribers, representing a penetration rate of about 57 percent.

The country's largest mobile company, MTN Rwanda lost 2,088 subscribers between the same periods, according to RURA with 3,452,182 active lines down from 3,454,270 in January.

With over 3.4 million subscribers, MTN remains the dominant player controlling more than half of the total market share with Tigo in second spot. 

The newest entrant, Airtel Rwanda, boasts a rise in subscriber base of 781,162 in March from 570,739 in January 2013. 

Rwanda’s mobile penetration at the start of 2012 was about 40 percent (4.3 million people), with Internet access penetration at seven percent, according to the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency. By the end of 2012, mobile adoption had grown to about 5.7 million people.

MTN and Tigo’s networks each reach more than 98 percent of the population, whereas Airtel’s population coverage currently stands at 15 percent.

MTN group is Africa’s largest telecommunications operator with more than 130 million cellular subscribers in the region and in the Middle East.