Kenyans set to enjoy faster Internet speeds

Information and Communications PS, Dr Bitange Ndemo.

In Summary. The government and nine private firms to implement Long Term Evolution network in one year’s time

Kenyans are closer to enjoying fast Internet speeds following the Treasury’s approval of a public-private partnership to implement the network’s roll-out.

Information permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo has said the Treasury last week gave its nod to a consortium of nine private firms in partnership with the government to implement the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.

“Rolling out LTE should start in a few months. We want to target especially the rural areas that have thus far been technologically marginalised” Dr Ndemo said.

LTE is a fourth generation (4G) mobile network that will provide fast speeds and higher bandwidth for multimedia services .

The roll-out will cost an estimated Sh42 billion. The PS said that some parts of the country will start to enjoy 4G services by the end of this year.

He was speaking in Kikuyu during a site visit of  one of the ICT Board’s Pasha digital villages. He revealed that the nine private firms in the consortium include Kenya’s four main mobile phone operators, hardware manufacturers, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent, Kenya Data Networks (KDN), South African mobile operator MTN and an unnamed US telecom firm.

There have been allegations that Kenya’s four mobile operators had been lobbying to exclude the other players from the process. However, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore denied these allegations. “We are not and have never lobbied for any company to be locked out of the process,” he said.

In 2010, Safaricom signed a three-year Sh12 billion contract with Chinese mobile manufacturer, Huawei, to roll out the 4G network. It is not clear whether these plans will be put on hold