MTN Rwanda has been fined by RURA for failure to meet contractual obligations. According to information posted on the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) website the company a subsidiary of the South African based MTN Group is to pay an amount of $140,000 for a period of two weeks for failing to upgrade their network as stipulated in the licence.
According to RURA the company which was given a five year duopoly, after a cabinet decision in 2003 to operate as national operator had failed for some reasons to meet quality of service provision.
Under the licence, MTN Rwanda was to construct, maintain and operate a 900, 1,800 and 1,900MHz, GSM telecommunication network within the geographic territory of Rwanda.
After receiving numerous complaints, regulators in Rwanda have since this year found that the provisions of these requirements were not met as provided for in their operational contract, calling for a penalty against the telecom operator.
A document from RURA’s board meeting held in August 2008, signed by the Chairperson Marie Claire Mukasine says, “MTN Rwanda is hereby imposed a daily fine equivalent to Frw 5 million ($10,000) for two weeks ”
“During the above period MTN Rwanda shall submit to RURA a clear roadmap showing the actions to be undertaken to meet the quality of service standards. The roadmap shall ensure that MTN will be able to solve the problem within a period not exceeding two months,” it adds.
Despite the fact that MTN Rwanda would have no problems recovering that money its predicaments come just months to the renewal of its licence which is meant to have expired by the end of this year.
RURA biggest penalty would probably be scrapping some of the services MTN Rwanda has been exclusively providing and offer them to the much anticipated 3rd national operator.
But even despite these shortcomings, the MTN Group in Johannesburg says, MTN Rwanda will go ahead and express its interest to renew the licence they have enjoyed for 10 years and that negotiations for the new licence are underway.
The licence will most probably be renewed even at the expense of the loyal unsuspecting subscribers.
MTN Rwanda operates almost as a monopoly enjoying over 90 percent market share within Rwanda.
In 2007 the company received Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA)’s accolade of the best tax payer. Services of MTN Rwanda are still found to be internationally substandard prompting the voice of President Paul Kagame on two separate occasions.
According to the MTN Group Integrated Report for the year ending 2007, MTN Rwanda contributed the 4th largest revenue to MTN’s South and East African (SEA) region, a region which contributes the largest bounty of money to MTN Group in terms of revenue and second in term of subscribers.
The group report says,”MTN Rwanda contributed revenues of R305 million and net profit of R101 million to the group.”
MTN Rwanda has a financial might. With a blessing from the MTN Group in South Africa, MTN in Rwanda paid an initial license fee of $200,000 and pays an annual license fee based on 3 per cent of revenue as defined in the license.
Despite the fact that this year an amount of $500,000 was paid for an extension to the old license, the South African based MTN Group says the terms of the renewal are currently being negotiated.
The question is, “Why can’t MTN Rwanda use this money to upgrade its network?”
Does the MTN Group in South African really care about the quality of service its subsidiary here in Kigali, offers to Rwandans, even after it increased it’s ownership from 40 percent to 55 per cent for $40.5m?
If yes, why doesn’t the group bail the subsidiary from a rotting reputation?
MTN Rwanda has talked of switching to 3G communication technology but the company has still not upgraded its network to allow clients use their Blackberry handsets to their full potential.
Users still can’t send MMS messages from one handset to another a technological advancement which is almost five years old on most GSM networks.
It is only MTN Rwanda where services like ‘Me to You’ are charged. The MTN subsidiary in Rwanda is the only one with the highest tariffs in the region.
Despite having one of the most successful VillagePhone projects, questions have also been raised about the innovations of MTN Rwanda and their public relations.
Now that the bids for the 3rd national operator are around the corner RURA’s challenge is to penalize MTN Rwanda in a way that they can feel the pinch.
There have been rumors that the Kuwaiti based Zain brand is already in talks to buy a mobile telephone licence in Rwanda and that it may submit bids by the end of this month.
Zain which is formerly Celtel operates in 15 African countries and would seek to extend Rwanda to its borderless one network.
how to use the service actually called sms media?
Yess, thrue that the internet service and speed are very low. Imagine internet for free in Hong Kong and Singapore. When in Kigali? If you want to attract business and services, you first meet the standard fore.
Actualy we pay more then 90 USD per month for a slow internetconnexion.
I am writing to complain about MTN services. I think they really take clients for granted. The day before yesterday I recharges my phone with an airtime of 5000 Rwandan Francs, after calling one person for just a minute there was no more credit. The same thing yesterday , I had 12,000 Rwandan frances when I tried to call in just two minutes, the credits got finished. And when u try to call customer care services, it is never available.