17 January 2008
Bujumbura — The government of Burundi recently issued a telecom licence to the mobile telephone operator HITS Telecom.
This company which is, according to the government of Burundi, based in Uganda, will provide GSM network service and Omax internet service.
HITS is the sixth mobile operator to receive a telecom licence to operate in Burundi. Its five other competitors are ONATEL Mobile, U-COM, Africell, and Econet Wireless. Of all these mobile telecom operators, only ONATEL mobile and U-COM cover the whole country, although their signal is weak and almost nonexistent in some areas.
The House of Integrated Technical Systems (HITS) Telecom was established in Uganda last year. In Uganda it operates as a branch of the House of Integrated Technical Systems Limited which is registered in Al Ulayya, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
This telecom operator was welcomed in Uganda as it promised to the shake up the market there. It is still unknown how much money HITS intend to devote to the Burundian market, however.
All mobile operators had promised to cover the whole country, but due to the competition between them only two, ONATEL Mobile and U-Com, have succeeded. These two companies have also created jobs as some people sell airtime. U-Com currently provides mobile internet service either through an expensive USB device or a portable fixed telephone locally known as Telema.
The price of communication is still high, although some taxes on telecom tools have been lifted. The price of internet service, estimated at 10 francs per a minute in 2004, has increased to 20 francs in all cybercafés of the capital city in 2007, although there seem to be no change in the speed.
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