U-Com Burundi was owned by
Orascom Telecom Holding, a subsidiary of Vimpelcom group. It was founded in 1985 and started an
AMPS 800 mobile network in Burundi in September 1993. LEO started to provide voice services in 1993 and data services in 2007. U-Com Burundi was awarded a
GSM license in 1999, and launched GSM services in February 2000. After Burundi became a member of the
East African Community in 2007, the landline incumbent
Onatel Burundi formed a consortium with other Burundian telecommunications companies including
Africell, U-COM Burundi,
CBINET and
Econet Wireless to build the
Burundi Backbone System (BBS) fiber optic network. As of Q3 2011 LEO had over 56% of the Burundi mobile market, with 1,132,000 subscribers. It had 245 telecom sites, including off-grid and on-grid sites. Since power was unreliable, both types of site had diesel generators. In October 2014 Econet Wireless Group, owned by
Strive Masiyiwa of Zambia, bought U-Com Leo for US$65 million. On 7 July 2015 the merger with
Econet Wireless Burundi was completed, forming
Econet Leo. The combined operator had 2.6 million customers and 242 direct employees. Competitors included
Lumitel (
Viettel),
Smart and
Tempo Africell. ==See also==