MTN Rwanda commercially launched its 5G service on Tuesday, starting with 51 sites in Kigali, with plans to scale up the network to target enterprise sectors including industrial, healthcare, and education.
The launch follows a pilot run of the service in Kigali Heights last month. MTN Rwanda CEO Monzer Ali said during an online press conference that the telco will expand the service outside of Kigali in due course, without specifying a timeline.
“We’re committed to expanding this network across the country, ensuring that all Rwandans, regardless of location, can benefit from the transformative power of 5G,” he said.
MTN said its 5G business model will be focused more on industrial use cases such as smart agriculture, remote healthcare and virtual education, as well as residential fixed wireless access (FWA), as the consumer mobile data market is currently limited by the relatively low market penetration of 5G smartphones (and smartphones in general) in Rwanda.
According to the latest Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey released in April, only around 34% of Rwandan households own a smartphone. According to Kepios, internet penetration in Rwanda was 34.2% at the start of 2025.
Issa Nkusi, head of network operations and maintenance at MTN Rwanda, added that the 5G rollout is intended to enhance the telco’s existing 4G and fibre infrastructure, not replace it.
“With compatibility already live on supported iPhones and Transsion devices, and more to come, we’re laying the groundwork for a future-ready, secure, and scalable network starting with Kigali as our innovation hub,” he said.
MTN Rwanda’s network has been 5G-ready since November 2024 following a expansion and modernisation project carried out by Ericsson.
