MTN takes advantage of SEACOM breakage

MTN Rwanda has said it is repositioning itself to offer a wide range of competitive Internet services including the newly launched MTN Hotspot – a Wi-Fi wireless service. The hotspot/Wi-Fi solution supports a walled garden portal for user login, bandwidth management, and real-time network policy control. For almost two weeks, a cross section of Internet users on Rwandatel have experienced a shortage in bandwidth due to a faulty undersea cable run by Seacom where Rwandatel gets its link through microwave technology. “The lesson learnt (from Seacom breakdown) is that there should always be redundancy. MTN is currently connected to TEAMS but we are also soon going to connect to EASSY - this will ensure that if one link is down, we have an alternative connection,” said Yvonne Makolo, MTN’s Senior Marketing Executive, in an email interview with Business Times. “We have also recently soft launched our fixed line offering. We are currently pushing all these products aggressively in the market. Being a total communication provider, both data and voice are our core business and we are placing a lot of emphasis on our data products,” she added. Recently, the leading telecom company by market share, deployed new Internet technology called Aradial Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) that will provide wireless services after entering a deal with Aradial, a global provider of AAA. The arrangement will enable MTN to provide Internet Protocol services and others including Wi-Fi, WiMAX, wireline Internet, VoIP, IPTV and mobile data. Currently MTN offers broadband on both Wimax and Fibre, internet –mobile internet of 3G, EDGE and GPRS.Wi –Fi services are currently available in Kigali, Gisenyi, Ruhengeri, Cyangugu, Huye and Rwamagana. Currently, Rwandatel is the leading Internet provider in the country with 62 percent on its ADSL network compared to MTN’s 35 percent on the GPRS (32KBps) and Wimax network (64 KBps, 256 KBps and 1 MBps). Ends