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Rwandatel's Mobile Phone License RevokedNairobi, Apr 10, 2011 (The Nation/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Rwandatel, Rwanda's second telecom operator has lost its license over failure to meet telecommunications standards. The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) board revoked the license on April 1, 2011 in accordance with Article 57 of the law N44 /2001 of 30/11/2001 governing telecommunications in Rwanda. Rwandatel is a subsidiary of Green Network, which is part of the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAP), a $5 billion foreign investment. LAP Green has 80 per cent stake in Rwandatel while the Social Security Fund of Rwanda holds the remaining 20 per cent. According to Mr Francois Regis Gatarayiha, the acting director general of RURA, Rwandatel's mobile services (GSM Voice and 3G Data) will remain operational until April 8, 2011 midnight, when the service will be switched off. However, the fixed telephony and internet license will remain active and operational. "From April 5, 2011 (Tuesday), all Rwandatel mobile subscribers are advised to subscribe to alternative mobile networks..." said Mr Gatarahiya. Recently, Mr Gatarayiha told The EastAfrican that Rwandatel had failed to implement its license requirements that include coverage rollout obligations, quality of services and investment plan. "During their license acquisition, when we privatised Rwandatel in 2007 through a competitive process, LAP Green came up as the best bidder because of its technical and financial proposal," said Mr Gatarayiha. Lap Green paid the USD100m for the financial proposal, but Mr Gatarayiha said it has not fulfilled its technical proposal obligations. "We found it (technical proposal) very good if implemented. The technical proposal is the annex to the license that they get, with clear deliverables per year," he said. LAP Green was selected from four bidders, including South African giant Vodafone. It was the second time the government was privatising the telecom company after Terracom, an American firm that had initially taken over in 2005, failed to meet its license obligations. The Libyan company committed itself to invest USD87 million in the first year, and another USD177 million spread over five years from 2007. "Now they have been in the market for almost four years yet we see something like 40 per cent of what was supposed to be invested," said Mr Gatarayiha. As at September 2010, statistics from RURA stated that Rwandatel had 535,710 subscribers, putting it third behind MTN Rwanda with 2.3 million and Tigo Rwanda, the new market entrant, with 685,000 users. Rwandatel has also been sued by MTN Rwanda over an accumulated interconnection fee estimated at USD3m. Sources familiar with the case say both companies are currently seeking an arbitrator after the case could not be handled by Rwanda's commercial court. Rwandatel produced a document signed by the two companies indicating that such grievances would be settled through arbitration. Under the telecommunication services provision regulations, companies should assess and pay interconnection fees due at the end of every month. In 2008, MTN Rwanda was told to payoff Rwf 70 million (about USD140,000) in fines to the government regulator for failure to meet contractual obligations, specifically failing to upgrade its network as stipulated in the licence. Rwanda's overall teledensity stands at 31.7 per cent with MTN Rwanda claims 22 per cent, Tigo 5.3 per cent and Rwandatel 4.4 per cent. |