Econet Burundi, the South African based Econet Wireless Group’s mobile operator in Burundi, hopes to increase its subscriber base to 800.000 with the new launch of a solar handset, writes Reuters.
The new handset will be produced by China’s ZTE and available for sale at a price of only 39$. Darlington Mandivega, the CEO at Econet, believes the new innovation will be very well received in a country with frequent power shortages.
So far, the company has invested 40 million dollars in its Burundi operations this year, a double figure from last year investments. Econet Burundi claims a base of 80.000 subscribers since April this year and aims for 100.000 by the end of 2009. According to Burundi’s telecoms regulator forecast, Econet’s customers base is estimated at 700.000 by 2012.
Last year, the country reported a total subscriber base growth of 78% to 480.000 users from a current population of 8 million people. The mobile market in Burundi is currently disputed by market leader U-com, owned by Egypt’s Orascom, state-owned ONAMOB, Africell, partly held by VTL Holdings of Dubai and Nepal’s Lacell SU. Ugandan-Arab Emirates joint venture HITS Telecom is the newest player, but has not started operating yet.
