Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), is reviewing the request put in by MTN Rwanda to extend the time for fixing network issues that the telecommunication company has, and will disclose the decision in two weeks. On August 23, the regulatory body issued a warning to the local telecommunications company to solve all problems related to its call services. According to the notice, MTN Rwanda had to fix the network glitches by October 29, 2021 in Kigali City and by November 30, 2021 in the rest of the country. Speaking to The New Times Ernest Nsabimana, Director General of RURA said that the decision to give them extra time to fix the issues is yet to be made. “We have received a report of what they have fixed so far and we are evaluating it, we will evaluate the factors that made them delay the fixing of issues, and on what the levels the issues have been fixed and from there we will take a decision” he said. “We cannot make a decision now without evaluating them first, and in case we find faults then the regulatory board will sit and decide accordingly,” he added. In a recent news conference, held last month, MTN Rwanda revealed that they had fixed the network issue by 80 per cent in Kigali, However, users are still complaining. Elyse Bonheur, an MTN user criticized the internet connection saying it is slow and he does not get his money’s worth after buying the internet bundles. “I work remotely so I have to use the internet for everything like meetings, sending e-mails yet the internet lets me down, which is frustrating because I thought the issues would be fixed by now,” “I really hope this time action is taken, because we as customers keep hearing that they will be fixed and we hear they are being worked on but at the end of the day nothing changes.” Mireille Ingabire another user said that due to the glitches during calls or not being able to receive or make calls due to poor network, it is hard to be able to use the network during an emergency and requests the regulators to put pressure on the telecommunication company to fix it. MTN speaks out According to Eugene Gakwerere, Chief Technical Officer of MTN Rwanda, considering the nature of the technologies in the telecom industry, network quality issues cannot be said to be completely resolved in the sense that no issue will ever be experienced. “However, network issues that customers have experienced in Kigali such as silent calls, distorted-speech calls, drop calls or poor coverage and data slowness in some areas, have been addressed through different interventions like optimization of existing sites, expansion and roll out of new sites, international internet capacity expansion and network resilience,” “Currently we await RURA’s own assessment on whether the network quality issue concerns that were raised have been resolved” he said.
