RURA gets tough on mobile service quality

The Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Agency (RURA) has penalised South African-owned cellco MTN Rwanda for its failure to improve mobile phone service quality, reports Rwanda News Agency. Earlier this year MTN was warned by the regulator to reduce the number of call set up failures, abrupt call disconnections and the frequency of dropped calls. ‘The sanctions imposed on MTN are a result of the enforcement notice that was issued back in March,’ said Francois Gatarayiha, the director general of RURA, adding: ‘They tried to address the issues, but it seems to us that there is still a lot of room for improvement.’ The move to fine MTN follows the completion of a network performance survey in Kigali last month, which also found that Tigo Rwanda, the local unit of Millicom International Cellular (MIC), did not meet certain licence obligations on quality of service, and as such has also received a warning from RURA.