MTN Rwanda deploys new Internet technology

Rwanda’s leading telecom company by market share, MTN, has said that the company has deployed a technology called Aradial Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA) that will provide wireless services in Kigali. 

MTN entered a deal with Aradial, a global provider of AAA, to provide Internet Protocol services and others including Wi-Fi, WiMAX, wireline Internet, VoIP, IPTV and mobile data).

MTN’s Senior Marketing Executive, Yvonne Makolo, revealed that the operator has rolled out Wi-Fi services in Kigali but have not yet commercially launched but is still doing the final tests. 

“This will allow our customers to access wireless internet services using Wi-Fi enabled cellular phones and computers in most areas of Kigali,” Makolo added.

The technology solution integrates with access controllers to manage Wi-Fi base stations. Aradial’s deployment operates with Ericsson’s intelligent network over MTN’s provisioning infrastructure to ensure zero charging leakages in the operator’s prepaid billing.
During the launch, Aradial’s CEO, Ori Etkovitz said that they are very happy with the project.

“The hotspot/Wi-Fi solution supports a walled garden portal for user login, bandwidth management, and real-time network policy control, all driven by our powerful business control engine,” Etkovitz explained.

This breadth of functionality will further enable the operator to implement volume, time and expiration enforcement and to extend its current offering to current and future subscribers.

MTN’s, CTO, Rami Farah said that being the leading communications provider by market share, they are committed to providing with their customers reliable and affordable services. 

“The new solution will enable us to exercise full control over the usage of our hotspots very cost effectively, while improving our subscribers’ service experience,” he added.

The Aradial solution incorporates an external and centralized Aradial Radius server that supports a range of hotspot controllers. It manages multiple wide area Wi-Fi base stations that use beam-forming technology to provide access to the city as well as to rural areas.

With the technology, MTN Rwanda will be able to offer better Internet connectivity to its customers, increasing its profitability while eliminating the overhead associated with customer provisioning, authorization and accounting.

Rwandatel is the leading Internet provider in the country with 62 percent on its ADSL network compared to MTN’s 35 percent on the GPRS (32KBps) and Wimax network (64 KBps, 256 KBps and 1 MBps).

Artel and ISPA share the remaining 3 percent and this is according to the recent report by AEO report released by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Kigali last year.
Aradial Technologies serves ISPs since 1997.

Both entry-level and high-end service providers with millions of subscribers can easily integrate Aradial into their IT and network infrastructures.

With more than 300 deployments in over 70 countries around the world, the suite can be installed on small and affordable hardware, on Windows, Linux or Solaris operating systems, and over a variety of databases.

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