Benson Kathuri
20 March 2008
Nairobi — Econet wireless will start mobile telephones services by June.
The chief executive, Mr Phillip Mudimu, said on Wednesday, the company had started rolling out its network, including hiring key personnel.
According to Mudimu, the company hopes to share infrastructure, including masts, with other telecommunication companies.
"We have approached Celtel and Safaricom but we are yet to hear from them," he said at a Press interview in Nairobi.
He, however, assured consumers that the rollout would go on whether the two leading mobile companies agreed to share the infrastructure or not.
Should the two decline to offer their facilities to the competitor, the company, set to become the fourth licensed mobile phone operator, would erect their own masts.
In the application for an operation licence, the company had demanded that the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) compel the companies to share the facilities and allow migration of customers with their numbers.
CCK Director-General, Mr John Waweru, encouraged the companies to share the facilities, but said migration among the networks would be allowed after four years.
He said the operators needed time to invest in equipment to ensure that the numbers were accommodated in their systems effectively.
He, however, warned them against creating an entry barrier to the new operator by charging exorbitant prices for infrastructure sharing, saying they were not competing on infrastructure but services.
"Sharing facilities is good business and companies are not competing on this, but on quality and cost of services," said Waweru.
He said the trend was gaining popularity globally citing Italy where the operators had opted to lease infrastructure to a third party as they concentrated on their core business - mobile telephone services.
Econet has for the last five years tried to start operations, but was dogged by shareholding disagreements that ended up in court.
In January, Information and Communication Permanent Secretary, Dr Bitange Ndemo, threatened to take unspecific action against the South Africa-based company should it fail to rollout within a month.
In September last year, CCK allocated Econet frequencies to start operation, but nothing was forthcoming, forcing Ndemo to issue the threat.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The East African Standard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
