Rwanda’s telecom industry will get a boost with the country’s latest fibre optic network transmitting large bandwidth from capital Kigali to Gatuna border, through Uganda, Kenya and the East African coast.
Patrick Nyirishema, Deputy CEO-IT, Rwanda Development Board, said that the cable had reached the border at Gatuna and is ready to be leased to telecom companies, writes the East African Business Week publication.
Operators in the country will be also able to link their existing fibre optic infrastructure with the pipe, to provide more affordable and reliable telecom services in Rwanda.
The country currently relies on microwave-based connectivity, which can degrade in bad weather conditions. To date, Rwandatel has spent US$200,000 monthly on hiring microwave technology, but the company has now embarked on acquiring fibre optic capacity, having also bought broadband capacity from SEACOM.
“Fibre is the future. You can have 100% availability of network and very wide bandwidth”, said Basilio Sadindi, chief technical operating officer at Rwandatel.
By adopting fibre, the company expects to cut costs and reduce its technology costs to $30,000 per month. The operator plans to connect to the pipe in the next three to four weeks and start a second phase, laying cable from Kigali to Gisenyi, to DR Congo. In total, Rwandatel aims to cover 900 km of Rwanda.
MTN Rwanda has also announced plans to expand the fibre optic cable network in the country, with a 1,000 km network. The company is planning to invest around $100 million towards improved broadband connections in the country. So far, the operator has 200 km of optic fibre around the capital city, which is set to be connected to the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy).
Any idea about when is it going to get started ?Tired of rwandatel broadband connection,very low speed for the exchange of relatively high amount.Can’t wait to buy it out.And yeah..
Hail Sir Kagame ..:) 😀 !