We are now more than 4 million!

RURA recently published via its website www.rura.gov.rw new figures of mobile users in Rwanda. We're now approximately 4.424 million mobile users. The increase, from 36% last year to 41% of the population, was mostly made possible by Tigo who's now carrying more than 1.5 million GSM users, closing the gap with MTN and its 2.9 million subscribers (attracting less compared to Tigo).

RURA is expecting mobile utilization to hit 60% of the population before the end of 2012. RURA assures that the current pace and the imminent arrival of Airtel, this goal (60%) will be reached by the end of the year. But we all know new companies tend to start in urban areas where people are already mobile users... But this time we can feel that Airtel is generating more enthusiasm more than any other company before its launch.

It is rumored that Airtel will be launching officially its services this April. We should see some unusual movement from our two current operators by then. Some breaking news (needs to be confirmed as well) are stating that Tigo has just acquired both the fiber optic and WIMAX network of the bankrupted Rwandatel. If this news is proved to be true, the acquirement would be a huge deal for Tigo in the race of ISPs (Internet Service Provider). Before RURA revoked its license, Rwandatel, according to its employees, was building a strong mobile-WIMAX network in Kigali (the first in the country). Currently Tigo is the second ISP in the country, behind Rwandatel which is still providing fixed internet services (RURA numbers).


What are your thought on this? What are your expectations from Airtel launch?

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.

Is it the end of phone calls?

                               Bell with what would later result in the invention of the telephone



I know the title of this post might sound too strong. But I would like to ask you a question: who's nowadays making phone calls from fixed lines? Practically no one. This was due to the popularity of mobile phones but also the fact that fixed lines were not adopted by many.


In this post I am not talking about fixed line calls but mobile phone ones. It has never been more easy to pull your device out of your pocket and make a phone call to literally anywhere in the world. But now this service we use on our daily routine is being threatened by new ways of communicating.

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, the new Google+ (still unknown here in Kigali) are all new and relatively cheap ways of communication. People tend to send messages using these platforms to avoid relatively expensive phone calls. If there is no real emergency, you can send a message on Facebook or tweet a friend or family. Of course they have to be online regularly to read your messages, but it's becoming easier to be online even on the go since the introduction of mobile Internet in 2008.
Social networks can sometimes become more efficient allowing people to get in touch without knowing each others cell numbers....

For the always-online users, this is an alternative way of keeping in touch. Just as much as people used to avoid expensive long distance calls by Skypeing. As ISPs are lowering their prices, we might see people getting online more often and starting to use internet as a way of keeping in touch.

Messaging services on high-end devices like BBM, iMessage, WhatsApp... are also becoming more popular. Not forgeting SMSs.

No wonder why operators are trying to get their subscribers get online at least on their own network.

This might resolve the problem of spectrum carriers face on long term. Maybe.

I know I might have sounded like I was killing phone calls, but we all know there is no such thing as a voice communication where you kinda get the real feeling of your friend. Like I said, new ways of communication are coming and VoIP services are also voice communication.... Your thoughts?

Promotions everywhere

For the last few months we've been seeing promotional rates from both mobile operators. Calls, SMS, even data plans are going down (enjoy people).
It's just amazing how easy it is to make a call to North America, Europe, India and China for just few francs. A 30 minutes call to these 3 different continents costs 900rwf. I remember old times when 1500rwf of airtime would only last for 16 minutes dialing a local number (No need to say international calls where at outrageous prices at the time).
Ironically, making long distance calls is now much cheaper than short ones to our east African neighboring countries.

SMS for 3rwf, free calls starting from 11pm till dawn, free airtime for each received calls on MTN, bonuses on airtime loaded, packs on Tigo,... Chacun y trouve son compte.

The "diet" started when "Big Yellow" lost its monopoly to Rwandatel in 2008. The rates cut went radical with the launch of Tigo Rwanda in 2009. They are considered as the one that brought a promotion trend in the market and now MTN is following the pace, bringing exciting deals.

RDB to launch new ISP

Rwanda Development Board (RDB/IT) is preparing itself to start a new Internet Service Provider codename BSC Ltd, standing for Broadband Systems Corporation Limited. The ISP league in Rwanda is becoming more crowded making the competition stiffer.

BSC Ltd is promising broadband Internet connection to its customers, claiming that initial tests performed during several weeks are satisfactory.
The second good news is the price. Users would be charged 20,000rwf a month. No wonder why operators started offering unlimited data plans at low prices several month back, which was a pretty good sign of what was about to come (referring to the launch of BSC Ltd).

The new ISP is offering its services with the help of a technology called WIMAX (sometimes referred to as an "almost" 4G network). A version of mobile WIMAX (first time in the country) called WiBro, developed by Koreans, is the one being installed at different spots in Kigali. Users will require Wibro-enabled modems if they wish to access the network. Obviously these modems will be offered at a low cost if a successful launch is on their agenda.
Waiting to get hands on it when it goes live and test the speed...

Cheaper data plans emerging

With news that new ISP players are planning to launch, and Airtel starting sooner or later, our two wireless network are starting to show some interesting deals for customers.

Even though these deals are still tagged as promotional rates, we are seeing 'le bout du tunnel'. Tigo is now famously known for putting exceptional promotions first but this time MTN got the edge on them with data plans for a whole day, week or month for 1,000; 6,500 and 21,000rwf respectively. Tigo replied with an Internet-day at 800rwf. Cheaper? Not really as Tigo's plan isn't unlimited (2GB limit).

MTN can afford offering unlimited plans with its 13 years old network (3 to 4 years for the 3G network) compared to the young Tigo network (only 2 years old).

4G comming?

A new mobile communication standard from the Next Generation Networks might see the light in Rwanda. The 4G, widely deployed in the USA and a couple of other countries, is more data-oriented but also providing voice communication can reach up to 40Mbps speeds on mobile devices.

Is this technology coming in Rwanda? Are we done with 3G? In my point of view, No! With 3G coverage problems even in Kigali, i think people didn't benefit the full potential 3G can offer. Additionally, 3G-enabled handsets are just getting popular, I don't see how the 4G standard would emerge requiring users to migrate 'again' to 4G-enable devices in order to experience all its features.

Some news are suggesting a new company is planning to launch a 4G network offering broadband Internet. Is it going to be WIMAX rather than LTE (which is "the real" 4G)? Looks to me that it will come not sooner than next year.