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Safaricom First Telco in Kenya to Acquire 4G License from Communications Authority

BY Soko Directory Team · January 5, 2017 08:01 am

Safaricom limited has become the first telecom company in the country to fully acquire the license for rolling out its 4G internet services across the country after paying a total of 2.5 billion shillings.

This move makes the company as the first to be given a go-ahead in effecting the expansion of the internet services before its competitors in the field including Airtel and Telkom Kenya. The company has been piloting 4G Internet for the past two years but had until last month not received a final go-ahead from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), who is the regulator on provision of the services.

Despite the fact that CA has not yet stated how the operation is going to be shared out between all the operators, Safaricom says that discussions are still in place so as to come up with a number of agreement on how the process will take place, adding that the actual details if the license are yet to be finalized.

With the 4G High-speed Internet in place, the telecom industry in the country is expected to experience immense growth as communication will be fast and more effective. This comes in handy at a time when voice revenues are beginning to flatten. The entry of over-the-top content providers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime into the local market is expected to drive this heavy usage of data.

Last year during the trial phase for the service, Safaricom connected a total of seven to the High-Speed internet, and the rest of the country will be connected during the initial stage. The company said it had 1,000 4G enabled base stations across the country and added that 800,000 devices on its network are

The company expects to leverage on high-speed Internet as a way of generating more revenue from a multi-billion-shilling government contract in which the telco is connecting police stations in Nairobi and Mombasa to 4G Internet.

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