Econet Wireless Burundi is a wireless telephone company in Burundi, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless.
History
In May 2006 Econet Wireless acquired a controlling interest in ST Cellular S.A, formerly Spacetel Burundi, one of four operators in Burundi licensed to provide GSM service, and began a major network expansion program. It launched its services in March 2009.
As of 2010 Econet Wireless Burundi had over 80,000 subscribers, or 0.96% of the market. More than 32% of their sites were not connected to the electrical grid and relied on diesel generators. Even in areas where a grid connection was available, it was unreliable, with outages of 6 to 16 hours per day.
In 2010 the landline incumbent Onatel Burundi formed a consortium with other Burundian telecom companies including Africell, U-COM Burundi (LEO), CBINET and Econet Wireless to build the Burundi Backbone System (BBS) fiber optic network. In July 2011 Econet Wireless launched the first mobile broadband service in the country after investing over US$10 million in 3G technology. Initially the service was available only in Bujumbura.
In October 2014