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 10.63 million connections in 2020. Among them were 10.61 million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 0.82 per person. In the EU, this figure is 1.2 mobile phones per person.

With about 1,447 webhosts, Rwanda is below the world's average by population. At the end of 2020, 1,061 million of these, or about 73 percent, were secured with SSL or comparable encryption.

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Development of telephone and internet connections

With an average download speed of 9.5 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Rwanda ranked 151st in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 5.9 Mbit/second (138th place). The quality of the Internet, consisting of signal fluctuations (jitter) and latency, is very far ahead at 5th 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 April 2022 from 181 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 - 2020

Broadband internet in Rwanda 2004 - 2020

Rwanda is lagging behind in the expansion of broadband Internet connections. Around 27% of all residents have access to the Internet. Around 0% have their own fast Internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the Internet via mobile communications.

Landlines 1990 - 2020

Mobile phones 1990 - 2020

Distribution in 2020	Rwanda Total	Rwanda percent	EU Total	EU percent
Internet users	3.43 m	26.50 %	379.48 m	84.74 %
Broadband users	17,685.00	0.14 %	163.72 m	36.56 %
Landlines	11,671.00	0.09 %	160.15 m	35.76 %
Mobile cellulars	10.61 m	81.95 %	540.56 m	120.71 %

Country comparison Rwanda : United StatesThe United States and Rwanda compared: demography, Economy, energy, languages and further dimensions.

Telecommunication in the United StatesComparison of technological development and communication in the United States with the countries of the European Union

Infected and deaths by the corona virus (COVID 19)

Spread of the Corona virus Covid19 (SARS-CoV-2)Worldwide development of the number of cases and deaths due to the corona virus.