Communications

Liberalisation of Kenya's telecommunications sector started in earnest in 1998, with the enactment of the Kenya communications Act.

In 1998, the former Kenya posts and telecommunications, KPTC, was dissolved. Three entities were established out of the defunct KPTC namely Telcom, Postal corporation of Kenya and the Communications Commission of Kenya, CCK. CCK is the licensing and regulatory authority for telecommunications, radio communications and Postal services.

Operating within the confines of the existing policy and legislative framework, the commission has licensed TWO cellular mobile network operators, Safaricom and Kencell communications Ltd, which have so far connected 1,150,000 subscribers. A third mobile subscriber is due to be licensed sometime this year. The networks of the two mobile companies cover all major towns, highways and tourist sites.

In the realm of the Internet, the number of regular internet users in Kenya is in excess of 500,000 (2002). The increase in the uptake of the internet has largely been due to the mushrooming of the cyber cafes in virtually all major towns, and the licensing of over 72 ISPs, the highest in Africa to date. Over 32 of the licensed ISPs are operational.

In order to reduce demands placed on International circuits and Connection time, the commission has licensed TWO Internet Exchange Points [IXPs] to keep local traffic local, save foreign exchange and free the internet backbone of looped traffic. The Kenya internet exchange points [KIXP], one of the exchanges is already operational and has over 10 ISPs already connected to it.

Sole internet backbone, JumboNet exclusitivity period granted by Telkom will expire in 2004 and this will pave way for competition in the fixed telephoney. However, the current telecommunications and Postal sector policy statement still allows for the use of Very Small Aperture terminal [VSATs] for downlink purposes.

The current government policy allows for the use of Interactive VSATs for intra-corporate communications. 10 companies have been allowed to set up intra-corporate data networks. Telkom enjoys a monopoly in the provision of International Commercial VSAT services as set out in the market structure.

Gilat Alldean [Africa] Ltd commercial VSAT Network operator has been licensed to compete with Telkom Kenya, and opened up the market segment fully to competition. Three other firms have been gazetted in readiness to licensing them to compete with Gilat Alldrean.

The use of VSAT for transmission of broadcast signal is fully liberalised in keeping with the current sector policy.

To support the provision of quality education to our people, the commission has licensed the African Virtual University [AVU] to set up a VSAT network, and assigned necessary frequencies.

Recently the internet received a major boost with the registration of the Kenya Network Information Center [KENIC] to manage Kenya's internet domain names. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers [ICANN] has approved the re-delegation of Kenya's country-code-top-level-Domain to KENIC.

KENET, the Kenya education network, a project geared towards interconnecting universities, colleges, and schools through the medium of internet has also been established.

In the realm of broadcasting, 22 FM and 15 TV frequencies for Nairobi have been issued. Over 14 broadcasting stations have been granted frequencies to broadcast in other designated broadcasting areas outside Nairobi.

Official statistics:

Telephones - main lines in use: 290,000 (1998)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 6,000 (1999)

Telephone system: unreliable; little attempt to modernize
domestic: trunks are primarily microwave radio relay; data commonly transferred by a very small aperature terminal (VSAT)
international: satellite earth stations - 4 Intelsat
Now, two mobile operators Kencell and Safaricom are increasing the mobile network coverage. The also have good offers on handsets including line.

Radio broadcast stations: AM 24, FM 8, shortwave 6 (1999)

Radios: 3.07 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 8 (1997)

Televisions: 730,000 (1997)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 7 (1999)

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