UPDATE 1-Millicom Cellular says wins Rwanda mobile licence
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KIGALI, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Emerging markets telecoms firm Millicom International Cellular (MICC.O) (MICsdb.ST) said on Monday it had won Rwanda's third mobile phone licence, expanding its central African presence to three neighbouring countries.
Rwanda's population of just over 9 million has two telecoms companies serving a combined subscriber base of about 850,000 people. With such low penetration, Rwanda says its telecoms market is ready for expansion.
Millicom, which operates in neighbouring Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo, said it would own 87.5 percent of a new joint venture with local company Marathon Corporation. The partnership will pay $60 million for a 15-year licence.
"It is a country with great potential for mobile telephony as it is a very densely populated country with an extremely low low mobile penetration which will enable us to build a network quickly and economically," Marc Beuls, Millicom's president and CEO said in a statement.
Rwanda is positioning itself to be a regional ICT hub and President Paul Kagame said in June the government had hired a Korean firm to lay terrestrial fibre optic cables across the small country.
Millicom, which is listed in the United States and Sweden, will join South Africa's MTN (MTNJ.J) and Libyan-owned RwandaTel in providing mobile phone services.
RwandaTel operates a CDMA network and has started rolling out new GSM technology while MTN is already on GSM.
Millicom is now present in eight African nations and has mobile phone operations in Asia and Latin America, along with cable and broadband businesses in Central America. (Editing by David Clarke and Hans Peters) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)
