Kabona Esiara
23 October 2008
Kigali — Rwandatel is to provide the infrastructure that will enable Lotto Rwanda sell lottery tickets using a mobile handset.
The agreement signed between Rwandatel, Lotto Rwanda, and Tilia Games will also pave way for subscribers to participate in on-line betting and on-line predictions for international games including soccer.
The agreement signed on Tuesday at Rwandatel Head Office comes after the successfully completion of Rwandatel's GSM network.
Patrick Kalinigufu, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rwandatel said the company is in final stages of completely switching to GSM technology.
GSM is an acronym that means Global System for Mobile Communication. It is a digital mobile telephone system that is widely used in Europe and other parts of the world.
GSM uses a variation of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and is the most widely used of the three digital wireless telephone technologies which include TDMA and CDMA that Rwandatel has previously been using.
The company has built 60 base station antennas countrywide in less than a year, positioning Rwandatel to smoothly migrate from CDMA technology to GSM.
Lap Green, a Libyan consortium that partly owns a stake in Rwandatel has invested $56m (Frw30.8b) in equipment and training to prepare staff for the new GSM technology that has many features.
The investment is part of the $87 million (Frw47.8 billion) that Lap Green pledged to invest within one year of acquiring majority stake in Rwandatel.
Kariningufu the deal is part of the value addition programme promised to Rwandans.
Lotto Rwanda announced that the first jackpot will be held on 12th December, with minimum of Frw30 million to be won.
Phillip Brizoua, Director General Lotto Rwanda said the partnership with Rwandatel is part of his company's contribution to support government in the use of ICT to fight poverty.
"Cost centre will also become a revenue center for people," he said. This means that instead of spending on airtime, many Rwandans will be able to generate revenue through betting by usage of a mobile phone.
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