(Ecofin Agency) – Lumitel claims to be the leader in the Burundian telecoms market in terms of number of subscribers. The mobile operator launched commercial 4G in the country in 2016.
Telecommunications company Viettel Burundi, operating under the Lumitel brand, plans to launch fifth generation (5G) mobile technology in 2025, promising its customers “even faster and more reliable connectivity”. The initiative, announced last week, could allow the telecoms operator to strengthen its position in a market where it is in particular competition with Econet Leo and Onatel.
“5G technology provides higher bandwidth and lower latency connectivity than current generation technologies (2G, 3G, 4G). Most importantly, 5G enables fundamentally new applications that significantly transform the way humanity lives, works and interacts with its environment,” explains the Telecommunications Regulation and Control Agency (ARCT). These advantages could allow Lumitel to retain its current customer base while attracting new subscribers, particularly among businesses seeking cutting-edge connectivity solutions in a context of accelerated digital transformation.
Lumitel claims to be “number 1 in 2G, 3G and 4G LTE technologies” with more than 3 million mobile subscriptions. If we do not have the exact figures of its competitors, we know that ARCT recorded 7.1 million subscriptions in the country as of June 31, 2024.
Remember that the adoption of Lumitel's 5G services, once commercially deployed, will depend on several factors, including the population's access to compatible smartphones. To this must be added the challenge of covering the new technology, which may prevent certain parts of the population from being able to use it. For example, data from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) shows that in 2023, 4G, launched since 2016, covered only 32.2% of the population estimated at 13.7 million. 2G and 3G covered 96.8% and 53.2% of Burundians respectively.
Furthermore, ARCT statistics show that the mobile telephony penetration rate in Burundi was 60.98% at the end of June 2024. The same source indicates that 23.36% of Burundians had access to Internet. For its part, the ITU estimates this rate at 11.3%. The institution also estimates that only 25.6% of Burundians own a cell phone.
Isaac K. Kassouwi
Published by Sèna DB de Sodji
Also read:
20/11/2024 – Burundi wants to strengthen its cooperation with Vietnam in ICT
06/30/2023 – Burundi announces the launch of commercial 5G for July 2024
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