Business Daily (Nairobi)
Okuttah Mark
24 June 2009
Power supplier Kenya Power andLighting Company (KPLC) is hunting for a telecommunications expert to head its newly--formed Internet business unit, as it prepares to enter the lucrative commercial data transmission market.
The power utility firm yesterday said in an advertisement in the daily newspapers that it's looking for an engineer to man its telecommunication business, as it races to diversify its earnings from the sale of electricity.
Besides increasing efficiency in data collection for its own use, KPLC would sell the extra bandwidth (high speed Internet) to third parties, which will be the main responsibility of the telecoms engineer the power utility company is sourcing for.
"The company has established a telecommunication business unit which will focus on opportunities in the fibre optic broad band," read part of a press advert. "In this regard, the company is seeking to recruit a pro active, business focused and result oriented person."
The move is expected to heighten the battle for control of the commercial data market that has remained the domain of Kenya Data Networks and Telkom Kenya and key telecommunication staff especially the engineers, whom the current operators are fiercely competing for.
It will also offer alternative options for those who want to share or buy extra bandwidth capacity.
To KPLC investors, this would translate to additional shareholder value from the company making optimal use of its current transmission system, which boasts thousands of kilometres of fibre cable.
Already, the power firm was granted a license by the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK), in April this year, that allows the firm to sell its excess high speed Internet (bandwidth) capacity to the public.
"We expect that the extra bandwidth capacity will help the company grow its revenue," said Mr Samuel Ndirangu, the KPLC manager in charge of telecommunications.
"We are yet to come with the figure that will charge for the extra bandwidth, but we hope that this should increase our revenue."
Top on the responsibility for this office holder (manager telecommunication business unit) will be to, identify areas for sale of excess an utilised bandwidth capacity.
The company now has huge amounts of unused bandwidth and had applied five years ago for a Data Carrier Network Operator (DCNO) licence which it failed to secure on grounds of legal constraints.
KPLC is currently installing about 1,500 kilometres of high quality fibre optic cable on its countrywide transmission network, primarily for its own use, in a $ 33 million System Control and Data Acquisition (Scada) project.
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