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Millicom Wins Eighth African Licence
(17 Nov 2008, BWCS Staff)International mobile company Millicom International Cellular announced today that it has won another African licence to add to its growing collection. The latest win is in Rwanda where the company has been successful in the bidding for the third national licence, beating off competition from three rivals.
Millicom is to hold an 87.5% stake in its newly created joint venture with local company Marathon Corporation. Between them, the new partners will pay US$60 million for the 15 year franchise. The company said that the new licence will bring its total of licences held to 16 - spread across Africa, Asia and South America. The telecoms company also operates cable and broadband businesses in five countries in Central America. Millicom says that its mobile operations cover countries with a combined population of approximately 291 million people.
The new licence in Rwanda will allow it to start marketing services to the country's ten million inhabitants, where mobile penetration is a lowly 9%. Currently the main operators are Rwandatel and MTN, with the latter having the lion's share of the market - claiming a subscriber base of over one million customers.
The new licence fits well into Millicom's local operations. The company already owns and operates licences in nearby Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rwanda will be Millicom's eighth licence in Africa.
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