Safaricom Awarded 3G License in Kenya

Kenya's telecoms regulator, the CCK has awarded a 3G license to Safaricom for a payment of US$25 million. CCK Director-General John Waweru assured the other mobile operators that there is enough spectrum available if they wish to apply for a license of their own.

"By rolling out 3G, Safaricom shall now be able to extend its range of services to include high speed data communications such as mobile internet access, mobile video conferencing and videophone," said John Waweru.

Safaricom Executive officer Michael Joseph said that he expects some 3G services to be launched as soon as this November.

Safaricom is 60% controlled by the state owned Telkom Kenya, which is due to be privatised later this year. Of the remaining, 35% is held by Vodafone and the remaining 5% is controversially held by a mystery investor - known to Vodafone - and believed to be linked to the previous President, Daniel arap Moi. According to figures from the Mobile World, Safaricom is the market leader with some 77% of the local market and a subscriber base of 7.9 million customers at the end of the first half of this year.

Posted to the site on 18th October 2007