The number of mobile phone subscribers in Burundi more than doubled last year to 1,076,478, due in part to expanded network coverage, its telecoms industry regulator said on July 6 Regulator ARCT said it expected the number of mobile phone users to go above 1.5 million by 2011. The coffee producing nation of eight million people had 480,000 subscribers in 2008, up from 270,000 in 2007.
The central African country has five active operators. U-com, owned by Egypt's Orascom and the largest by subscribers, had over 700,000 subscribers at end the end of 2009.
The remaining users were shared between State-owned ONAMOB, Africell, which is owned by VTL Holdings of Dubai, Econet, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless from South Africa, and Lacell SU from Nepal. Econet said in May it expects the number of its clients to more than double to 300,000 by the end of this year as it expands its network and updates technology.