Rwanda’s mobile market grew by 14 percent in the third quarter the sector’s regulator said in a statement on Monday.

According to statistics released on their website the Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Agency (RURA) said that mobile subscription increased to 3,615,467 users at the end of September from 3,172,759 in June, representing a third of the population.

The increase comes at a time when Rwanda is targeting 6 million subscribers by 2012.

Statistics released by RURA indicate that MTN Rwanda, a subsidiary of the South African MTN Group, continues to be the market leader with 2.3 million subscribers. However, Tigo consolidates with the second most subscribed position since surpassing Rwandatel in the second quarter with 685,393 subscribers.

Rwandatel now claims 535,710 subscribers according to the regulator’s statistics. The statistics indicate that MTN grew by 194,253 subscribers, Tigo Rwanda by 156,279 subscribers and Rwandatel by 92,176 subscribers.

RURA also said the subscribers listed are classified as active subscribers because they made at least one revenue-generating activity using the SIM cards within the last three months.

While Rwanda’s mobile subscription stood at 2,497,170 by January 2010, the market has been growing steadily by 20.9 percent in the second quarter this year. By end of March there were 2,722,236 subscribers and 3,293,891 users at the end of June, as government considers licensing a fourth operator by the end of the year. The regulator is looking at market trends to determine when to issue the license.

RURA has also attributed the growth to lower tariffs introduced amidst stiff competition and various promotions resulting from increasing competition.

Rwandatel, partly owned by the government of Rwanda and the Libyan investment consortium, LAP Green, is the leading provider of data and Internet services in the country, commanding 70 percent of the market, RURA said.

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