Telkom Kenya says that it plans to roll out a GSM network as soon as it is formally granted its expected national mobile cellular license. The new network would run in conjunction with the operator's existing CDMA based local wireless service which was controversially launched late last year.
Telkom Kenya has not formally been granted the GSM license, as it has to pay a US$55 million fee to the regulator. France Telecom is to provide most of the financing and technical support for the network, although it was not clarified on whether the network would operate under FT's preferred Orange brand name.
"They have not objected to our application, we look forward for the licence any time now," Mr Bernard Rubia, the company's chief communication officer told The East African Standard.
The CDMA based wireless service currently has about 160,000 subscribers, and the company aims to secure an additional 40,000 subscribers over the next month due to the launch of an aggressive marketing campaign. The aim is to have one million subscribers by June next year.
The country's GSM operators currently have around 11.8 million subscribers between them - with Safaricom the dominant player with its 77% market share. The Mobile World notes that Safaricom ended September with just under 9.1 million customers - compared with 2.7 million for Celtel Kenya.
On the web: The East African Standard - The Mobile World
Posted to the site on 14th December 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/28080.php