Rwanda’s Fourth Generation Long-Term Evolution Internet (4G LTE) has won the Global Telecom Business Innovation Award for its innovative business model. The award recognised Rwanda for developing a private public-partnership business model.
The awards also considered the innovative market structure through single wholesale network, and speed of rollout across the country. The award went to the partnership between the Rwandan Government and Korea Telecoms, South Korea’s largest telecommunications provider, who make up Olleh Rwanda Networks.
As principal shareholders, Korea Telecoms role was to bring in expertise and financial investments while the government was to lay a 3,000 kilometre-national fibre optic cable.
Rwanda commercially launched 4G Internet technology in November, last year, which is sold on wholesale basis by Olleh Rwanda Networks and retailed by several internet service providers, including telecoms MTN and Airtel.
Receiving the award at a ceremony in London, United Kingdom, the Minister for Youth and ICT, Jean-Philbert Nsengimana, invited other ICT industry players to Rwanda to help accelerate efforts toward delivering the promise of broadband to the economy and Rwandans in general.
“The Government of Rwanda congratulates our partner Korea Telecom on this award which recognises President Paul Kagame’s vision of making ICT a central component of the country’s rapid socio-economic transformation,” Nsengimana said.
