MTN Rwanda and Kenya’s Safaricom in regional roaming talks

MTN Rwandacell will soon be the latest affiliate in the regional free-roaming zone bonanza following talks with Safaricom of Kenya.
Once the deal is concluded, it will allow nationals in Rwanda and the rest of the region to make and receive calls without roaming charges, to MTN Uganda, Safaricom of Kenya and Tanzania’s Vodacom.

The MTN Rwandacell chief executive, Themba Khumalo and his Safaricom counterpart, Michael Joseph, met at the sidelines of the annual GSM Conference in Nairobi recently and discussed the prospects.

The prospects come just weeks after Rwanda joined the East African Community block where MTN Uganda, Safaricom and Vodacom have offices.

“I have already had discussions with the MTN Rwanda CEO and we’ll continue to talk to see what we can do,” the Safaricom chief said recently in a brief interview.

Safaricom is Kenya’s largest mobile operator.

For four months now, mobile subscribers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have been making roam-free calls, thanks to a tri-network tie-up arrangement by MTN Uganda, Safaricom (Kenya) and Tanzania’s Vodacom.

Celtel International owned by the Kuwait based MTC Company recently expanded into the Congo Brazzaville, Gabon and the DRC expanding the one world net work to five countries.

Celtel International was the first in the whole world to pioneer free-roaming to network beyond boundaries of three countries.

Khumalo said, “I see no reason why we should not implement the service but we are going to see what has hindered the process before. We have a lot to gain.”

Under the arrangement, the over 15 million combined subscribers of all the four networks will be able to make calls when across each others borders at local rates and receive free incoming calls.

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