RWANDA UTILITIES REGULATORY AGENCY RURA

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RWANDA UTILITIES REGULATORY AGENCY (RURA)

• WORKSHOP ON UNIVERSAL ACCES1-4 MARCH,
  2005NAIROBI, KENYA

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• CONTENT
• I - INTRODUCTION
• II BACKGROUND
• III- REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
• IV. UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO BASIC COMMUNICATIONS
• V. CHALLENGES

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RWANDAS POLICY AND STRATEGIES

• I INTRODUCTION
• Rwanda faces greater development challenges as
  the country is
• emerging out of the 1994 genocide and war
• Development policies and strategies have to take
  full and close
• consideration of these post-genocide issues with
  a community
• address in all undertakings
• The development of universal capabilities, mostly
  at the
• community level, is critical to allow full
  participation of all social
• groups to the national socio-economic development
  process
• undertaken by the Government of Rwanda
• This will require that access to information and
  knowledge be
• made as easy as possible for all.

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II BACKGROUND

• 1- KEY SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC AND MACRO-ECONOMIC
  INDICATORS.
• Demographic features
• Female, young and rural dominant population with
  high density
• Population 8,128.553 (census 2002)
• Density 322 per sq km
• Population growth rate 2.7
• 83.1 of the population live in rural areas
• 1.757.426 households.
• Macro economic features
• Agriculture-based economy
• 88.6 of the national labor force working in
  agricultural sector
• GDP per capita 202 USD
• 66 of the population in rural area lives below
  the poverty line

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• 2 - RWANDAS DEVELOPMENT VISION AND POLICY
• A- Government initiatives
• ?The Government of Rwanda is committed to
  promote the information and communication
  Technology (ICT) sector, aiming at moving Rwanda
  from a traditional agriculture based economy into
  a knowledge based economy.
• ?Designing of a development oriented ICT Policy
  and the building of a conducive environment
  through a sector reform with the objective to
  promote the development of the ICT sector in
  Rwanda
• B- Rwandas development Vision
• The overall objective of Rwandas development
  vision is
• Rwanda to move from a least development country
  status to join
• the emerging economy group members to year 2020

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• Vision of an ICT- led development
• Rwanda to modernize the economy and the society
  by the means of ICT as the development engine to
  propel the economy at accelerated growth rates,
  to reach natural prosperity and to ensure
  competitiveness.
• C- Rwanda ICT Policy Process
• The Rwandan ICT- led Socio Economic Development
  Policy
• began in 1998.
• The first phase concentrated on a comprehensive
  ICT- led
• Integrated Socio-Economic Development Policy for
  Rwanda
• The document was adopted by the Government in
  early 2000.
• The second phase of the process concentrated on
  the
• development of the first ICT Plan (2001- 2005).

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• D- MAJOR STAGES IN STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
• This Plan 2001- 2005 is the first of the four to
  be
• developed within the framework of the Vision for
• Rwanda in 2020.
• Stage1 1st and 2nd Plan Components
• Provision of infrastructure equipment and support
• Building ICT skills, both user and technical

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• Stage2 3rd and 4th Plan components
• Integrating ICT in all sectors of the society
• Core of the Rwanda ICT Strategy
• Human resource development
• ICT in education, health, Agriculture and Finance
• Facilitating Government Administration and
  Service delivery
• Developing and Facilitating the private Sector
• Deployment and Spread of ICT in the community
• Infrastructure development Including Universal
  Access

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• III - REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
• 1- Legal Framework
• The law n39/2001 establishing the Rwanda
  Utilities Regulatory Agency
• The law n44/2001 of 30/11/2001 governing
  telecommunications has permitted the openness of
  the market with new private actors entering into
  play.
• The law n32/2002 establishing the Rwanda
  Information Technology Authority

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• 2. Telecom Profile
• Operators and Services providers
• - Rwanda Telecommunication s.a. (Rwandatel) a
  state owned
• fixed operator company under privatization.
• - MTN Rwandacell, mobile operator
• - The African Rural Telecommunication (ARTEL),
  VSAT network
• operator
• - Mediapost, ISP
• - Terracom, ISP
• Other service providers include
• Training and Capacity building
• - Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and
  management (KIST),
• - The computer center of the National University
  of Rwanda
• - Private sector initiatives e-tools, e-ICT
  training center

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• 3. STATISTICS
• Teledensity 1.8 for 100 inhabitants
• - Fixed telephone subscribers 23,424
• - Fixed public telephone 3,933
• - Mobile telephone subscribers135,214
• - Mobile public phone 1,457
• - Internet subscribers 2,875
• - Household with telephone (census 2002) 3.3
• - Household with radio(census 2002) 41.7
• - Household with computer (census 2002) 0.1
• - Household with television (census 2002) 0.1

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• IV. UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO BASIC COMMUNICATIONS
• In Rwanda, the rate of penetration of
  communications means is
• very low.
• For future development by 2020, Rwanda projects
  to have
• At least one community telecentre associated to
  various systems
• of communications at the level of each
  administrative sector and
• at each secondary school and even to a large
  number of
• primary schools.
• The telephone density of at least 20 and the
  hinterland
• connected to the communication network.
• To achieve these objectives,
• The Universal Access Fund has been established by
  the law
• n44/2001 governing telecommunications and the
  Presidential

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• 1. DEFINITION
• Universal Access to telecommunications services
  means in
• accordance with the law n44/2001, the widest
  possible
• access on affordable terms and with minimum
  subsidy to
• public telephone service, by the general public
  in all parts
• of the Republic.
• The provision of Universal Telecommunications
  Access
• consists in
• Supplying to any person who requests a connection
  to a Public network with the serviced zone at an
  objectively justifiable price
• Providing in each large city, municipality
  within a radius of 2 km maximum, at least one
  public access point
• Providing in each district and trading centre at
  least one public access point, as well as the
  possibility of servicing the public and health
  services in the area
• Ensuring free carriage for call to emergency
  public services
• Facilitating access to information technologies
  especially in schools, hospitals and other public
  services

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• 2. IDENTIFICATION OF NEEDS
• The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) has
  the mandate to draw up
• and keep up to date an exhaustive list of
  localities and file them according to
• Access to telecommunications services provided in
  whole territory concerned
• and the coverage by a network.
• 3. TENDER AWARDING
• New Universal access service provision is awarded
  by auction within the context
• of a transparence process based on competition
  between interested public
• operators and as a priority to operators whose
  business is only confined to rural
• areas.
• 4. CONTRIBUTIONS
• The fund is, without excluding other
  contributions, financed with contributions
• made by Public Operators, who pay an annual
  amount of money equivalent to a

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• 5. PROJECTS
• One pilot project has been launched for the
  provision of the
• Telecommunications Services in 44 localities
  identified all around
• the country. The project is implemented by
  African Rural
• Telecommunications (ARTEL) using VSAT technology.
• V. CHALLENGES
• Major Problems in Rural Areas include
• The majority of the population in the rural areas
  depends on
• Agriculture
• Most of them live under the poverty line
• The communities are isolated, not easily
  accessible and the means of