Rwanda: Kigali City to Go Wireless By September

By Saul Butera
The New Times-Kigali
July 22, 2009

Kigali — Internet users in Kigali City will soon be utilising fast speed mobile wireless Internet called WiBro.RDB Deputy CEO in charge of IT, Nkubito Bakuramutsa said yesterday that the WiBro technology that will enable users to access uninterrupted Internet from any part of the city, will be deployed by the end of September.

"Tourists will be able to move from the airport to there hotels while surfing the net and people will be moving in their vehicles while carrying out transactions on their laptops," Bakuramutsa.

The Wibro project started last year. After a number of deliberating efforts government contracted a Korean Telecom (KT), a Korean company to install the commercial wireless mobile broadband technology.

Wireless Broadband (WiBro) is a wireless broadband Internet technology developed by the South Korean telecom industry.

Bakuramutsa said that the Kigali Wibro project is worth Rwf4.5 billion ($8 million) and by December, the Rwf22.7 billion fibre-optic project will be rolled out throughout the country. Bakuramutsa added that the backbone is expected to provide affordable high speed broadband Internet and once complete it will connect Rwanda to the rest of the world.

"With the new infrastructure, the government is targeting to have over 4 million Rwandans gain access to high speed Internet within the next two to three years.

The project will also increase broadband availability to more than 700 Rwandan institutions, including schools, health-care centres and local government administrative centres," he explained.

The national backbone is expected to consist of a high-speed fibre-optic network that will link 36 main points in Rwanda's 30 districts, with a 2,300-kilometre cable running across the country and will also be linking Rwanda to the undersea cable of the cost of Mombasa.

The Korean company was also contracted by the government in a related project to lay the fibre-optic cable that will connect the country to the undersea cable and also provide technology, equipment, relevant application materials.

The project also includes training and managing the cable installation the project which is worth Rwf22.7 billion ($40 million).

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