Telecommunication in Rwanda

Compared to the European Union, Rwanda is massively lagging behind in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +250, there were a total of 9.67 m connections in 2019. Among them were 9.66 m million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 0.76 per person. In the EU, this figure is 1.2 mobile phones per person.

In the expansion of broadband Internet connections, Rwanda is back. Around 22% of all residents have access to the Internet. Approximately 0% have their own fast Internet connection, which is at least faster than the previous ISDN (more than 2048 kbit/s).

With about 1,447 webhosts, Rwanda is below the world's average by population.

Back to overview: Rwanda

Development of telephone and internet connections

With an average download speed of 20.35 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Rwanda ranked 133rd in an international comparison. The upload rate was 24.82 Mbit/second (80th place). The quality of the Internet, consisting of signal fluctuations (jitter) and latency, is very far ahead at 20th place.
In mobile internet, i.e. on tablets and smartphones, Rwanda comes th with a download speed of 0 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 0 Mbit was enough for th place.

The "Speedtest Global Index" published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in Mai 2021 from 180 countries.

The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and Internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100% mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.

Access to the Internet in Rwanda from 1990 - 2019

Broadband internet in Rwanda 2004 - 2019

Landlines 1990 - 2019

Mobile phones 1990 - 2019

Spreading in 2019	Rwanda Total	Rwanda percent	EU Total	EU percent
Internet users	2.75 m	21.77 %	382.04 m	85.43 %
Broadband users	8,885.00	0.07 %	158.30 m	35.40 %
Landlines	11,393.00	0.09 %	165.48 m	37.00 %
Mobile cellulars	9.66 m	76.49 %	542.60 m	121.33 %