East African Business Week (Kampala)
Bosco Hitimana
22 November 2009
Kigali — Tigo Rwanda, the third mobile operator in the country, is launching Monday 23, with a record of over 30,000 subscribers.
The booking of the Tigo numbers 072 followed by seven other digits started days before the commercial launch, according to the company's Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Marcelo Aleman.
"We have registered over 30,000 subscribers and our target is to have every subscriber in Rwanda talking to Tigo network", Mr. Marcelo told East African Business Week last Thursday. The potential subscribers provided their names and chose their preferred mobile number with a promise to get a subscription when the company launches.
Marcelo said the company has created job opportunities for about 1,500 people, of whom about 67 are permanent workers and 1,200 freelancers and dealers.
Freelancers as a direct distribution force have started a door-to-door marketing and sales campaign in the areas where the company's network is live.
The company announced it had put in place base stations in 111 network sites with 26 in Kigali and the rest in the provinces. Currently, Tigo has 53% of the network population coverage. The network is live in 13 out of 30 districts in the country.
The company's Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Mr. Mohamed Dembele said they plan to increase connected districts to 24 by next year and cover the entire country by 2011.
The company is launching with both internet and mobile services providing 2G, 3G and 3.5G services. With 2G, one is able to send Short Messages and access the internet using GPRS enabled handsets, while 3G enables voice, text and video sharing. 3.5G is the advanced version of 3G, which offers the fastest speeds in data, voice and video sharing.
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