Bharti Airtel has rolled out its operations in Rwanda, opting to partner with Ericsson for the deployment, rather than Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), with which it revealed a multi-market African partnership last year, Telecoms.com reports.
Ericsson will manage Airtel`s Rwandan network from end-to-end, including providing managed services.
Last year, the Indian-headquartered carrier struck a partnership with NSN to expand, plan and operate its mobile networks in Madagascar, Malawi, Congo Brazzaville, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The government aims to increase mobile penetration to 60% by the end of this year, and Airtel`s entry will be a major boost for the information and telecommunications sector, The East African states.
“The objective here is to attract more customers, help the government of Rwanda to achieve eight million voice customers and five million Internet customers; which is the vision of the government of Rwanda,” says Manoj Kohli, Bharti Airtel`s CEO for Africa.
Telecoms industry observers believe the entry of Airtel`s pricing and innovation will drastically stir up the telecoms sector and increase competition, thus giving consumers a choice, The Citizen says.
Rwanda`s mobile penetration rate stands at 46% as of December 2011.
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