“We believe that Rwanda is an extremely promising market and this launch further strengthens our footprint in eastern Africa,” said Manoj Kohili, CEO at Bharti airtel, speaking to local sources.
Ericsson is reportedly responsible for the end-to-end management of the network, including managed services and operations/business support systems. Bharti has also continued its African partnership with IBM, which will deploy and manage Bharti's IT infrastructure and applications in Rwanda.
Bharti will face stiff competition from dominant player, MTN Rwanda, which has over 70% market share. Rwanda’s other operator, Millicom, has approximately 29% of market share.
Expansion into Rwanda means that Bharti now has a footprint of 17 countries on the African continent. The operator acquired Zain’s African regional assets in 2010 for $10.7 billion and has since invested heavily in the continent.
