Rwanda has launched the 4G LTE (Fourth Generation Long-Term Evolution). This adds Rwanda to the list of the African countries which have began deploying the high speed internet in their countries.
Countries that have 4G LTE in Africa include Liberia, Namibia, Angola, Tanzania, Nigeria, Mauritius, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Rwanda’s Minister for Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, said that the rollout of 4G LTE will speed up national development goals by speeding up ICT based services as well as creating jobs and proving new opportunities to deliver better services across the country.
“This launch enables people to accomplish their dreams and new ideas will blossom. The launch of 4G LTE is one of many activities that our Government is putting in place so as to achieve a middle class knowledge based economy targets by 2020,” Minister Nsengimana stressed.
Nsengimana said that the Government had and will continue its support for ICT literacy to make the service impactful on the lives of Rwandans as well as improving accessibility and internet speed.
Patrick Nyirishema, the director-general of Rwanda Utility Regulatory Agency (RURA), said: “It is a new addition to the ecosystem, whatever benefits citizens were receiving due to ICT development in the country, will now increase in terms of speed and efficiency.”
The director general added that the service will not be priced very differently from the 3G service that has been accessible previously.
“As a regulator we have an interest in ensuring that all the licensed entities are profitable because it is only then that we can have sustainability of the services they are issuing in the market. By issuing a license it shows that we are content that it is good business,” Nyirishema said.
Under the EDPRS2 program, the government targets to have 95 percent of citizens with access to fast and secure 4G LTE Internet by 2017.