The East African Standard (Nairobi)
Noel Wandera
1 March 2006
Nairobi — The Government will license the second fixed national telecommunication operator (SNO) this July.
Information and communication minister, Mutahi Kagwe, said the SNO will be given a unified licence, enabling it to operate wireless loop, mobile phone and International gateway services.
While announcing the re-tendering of the SNO early last month, Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) director-general John Waweru indicated that they were considering repackaging the new license "to accommodate new requirements."
The process of licensing the second operator hit a snag in 2004 when immediate former minister for Information and Communication, Raphael Tuju, stopped the exercise, saying it was flawed.
Three companies out of seven initial bidders had submitted their technical documents for evaluation.
Kagwe, who spoke during the launch of ACCESS Kenya VoiP services at the Intercontinental Hotel, in Nairobi on Monday, said Safaricom and Celtel Kenya would receive their international gateway licenses within the same month.
The international gateway services are expected to increase the quality of calls and drastically reduce the cost of calling, as both firms will be able to transmit international calls without going through Telkom Kenya.
Kagwe told Kenya's top telecommunication executives gathered at the function that the Government will match the two significant announcements by making available all the required broadband to enable technology service companies reduce further, their current prices and introduce additional services.
"Towards the end of this year, companies will have all bandwidth for all they want," said Kagwe.
Kagwe castigated the Internet Service Providers for having a weak lobby group that was unable to push their agenda through.
"I have not had any representatives from ISP coming to see me over issues related to the industry. The ball is therefore in your court,' he told them.
Michael Somens, the chairman of Communications Solution said ACCESS Kenya had invested Sh50 million as capital expenditure to improve its business service in Kenya.
The company was voted best corporate ISP last year.
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