End of TIGO's honeymoon?

10rwf/min? Over. 1rwf/SMS? over. 3rwf/SMS? Over!!

5 months after Tigo started operating in Rwanda they slashed prices like no one ever did, attracting customers at a speed never seen before. "Tigo weee, icumi ku munotaaaa" was what people were hearing everywhere at that time (meaning 10rwf per minute for calls). International calls from 30rwf/ minutes, local SMS at only 1rwf...
These unbeatable prices allowed Tigo to attract 1 million subscribers in less than 2 years of operations. Later on introducing Packs, where you can "buy" minutes, a number of SMS and some data volume before using them at a low price.

Tigo now seems to be a little bit increasing its charges day after day. Local calls and SMS are now at 15rwf/min and 10rwf respectively. Still, the Blue Company has the lowest call rates.

On the other hand, Big Yellow tends to decrease prices. All these changes are, in one way or another, related to the upcoming start of Airtel.

Few days ago, I was reading this magazine called Jeune Afrique. I found an article on Orange (a France Telecom company) in Africa. It was describing how this mobile telecom company is having a difficult 2011 year. Present in 18 countries in Africa, the company suffered losses during conflicts this year especially in Egypt and Ivory Coast, both in terms of infrastructures and customers.
The part that interested me was about Orange in Kenya. The company lost a potential gain of up to 20 million US$ due to the arrival of Bharti Airtel, according to the article. The Indian company forced Orange, and other operators in the country, to cut by half their prices.

No doubts all these changes looks like "adjustments" for our two local operators before the end of there monopoly.