MTN Rwanda, the market leader in the telecommunications sector, is in talks with the Rwanda Utility Regulatory Agency (Rura) over a Rwf90 million fine imposed on it for poor quality of services.

The telecom operator argues the fine is unfair and needs to be reviewed.

Last week, MTN was served with an enforcement notice issued on March 1 giving it one month to improve the quality of its services while also paying Rwf3 million daily for one month.

Trouble for Tigo

Tigo Rwanda Ltd, another telecom operator, also received the first enforcement notice and was given one month to improve on certain service parameters found to be below the minimum threshold.

However, the telecom firm was not given a financial penalty.

This is the second time that MTN is being penalised for providing substandard services.

According to Rura, MTN has from the beginning of the year been unable to meet some of standards set for telecom companies, which include good quality call completion rate, call set up success rate, dropped calls, blocked calls, speech quality, handover success rate, call set up time and signal strength.

Tigo did not meet the low call set up success rate and high drop call rate.

Rura has set the standard rate for many of the parameters at below two per cent but the two telecoms have consistently operated above that mark.

Major Regis François Gatarayiha, director general of Rura, said the two telecoms had been notified about their poor service long before the regulator took action.

However, both companies deny any wrongdoing. MTN said Rura’s Quality of Service Test Report on a survey conducted in August is not a fair reflection of the actual situation on the ground.

The company said an independent technical team had carried out another survey of MTN’s network in Rwanda after Rura’s survey and found no major problems.

“Ericsson, an independent technical team, performed their own tests on our network in September and found that despite slight hitches beyond our control, like fibre cuts, our network is operating within all key performance indicators (KPIs) as per our license obligations,” said MTN in a statement.

It is on this basis that MTN believes the fine to be unfair and harsh.

Past fines

In 2009, Rura fined MTN Rwf87 million, saying it had failed to upgrade its network or address problems such as dropped calls.

READ: MTN Rwanda under scrutiny over network disruptions

As of August this year, MTN had about 3.2 million customers, a growth of close to 300,000 subscribers, while Tigo had about 1.6 million customers.

Diego Camberos, chief executive officer of Tigo, in a telephone interview, said improvement on Tigo’s network is ongoing and there should be no need for the enforcement notice.

Last year, Rura revoked the licences of Rwandatel, an LAPGreen investment arm from Libya, for poor quality on its network.