Tigo unveils online television services

Tigo Rwanda has unveiled online television services for 4G internet subscribers. The telecom firm said it had entered into a partnership with iRokotv, an online entertainment TV to provide subscription-based video entertainment for its 4G clients.

Chantal Umutoni Kagame, the telecom’s head of corporate affairs, said this will enable 4G wireless users unlimited access to entertainment services from across the globe. Prepaid customers will part with Rwf 20,000 monthly for two gigabytes (GB) of internet data while the postpaid clients will be paying Rwf 50,000 and Rwf 215,000 for 4.5 GB and 20 GB respectively.

In addition to that, the clients will have exclusive access to the iRokotv service at different rates.

Peter Brunt, iRokotv East Africa vice president said they were looking to have more subscribers accessing African content and that they were working with Rwandan filmmakers on how they could sell their productions through the platform. The partners were optimistic that more people will use the television service to increase uptake of 4G internet services in the country.

Rhee Dongwan, chief marketing officer of ORN, which is the wholesaler of 4G LTE to Tigo, said that as more people take up the service, the pricing will ultimately go down. The 4G technology was commercially launched in October last year through a private public partnership between government and Korea Telecom (KT) to deploy a high-speed 4G broadband network covering 95 per cent of Rwandans in three years. Unfortunately, many Rwandans have not yet been able to take up the high-speed internet service mainly because they can barely afford it.