European Investment Bank Loans Telkom Kenya USD 40 Million to Better Services

The European Investment Bank, on Friday, signed a 40-million-US-dollar loan agreement with Telkom Kenya to support the company’s services across the country, especially in improving the 3G and 4G network coverage throughout Kenya.

Telkom, in addition to improving mobile connectivity, will also invest in its Fibre-To-The-Building (FTTB) network, which is set to improve the quality of service offered to enterprise and corporate customers.

The focus will include investments into access, core, transmission and IT components; infrastructure that is crucial to further improve network reliability and accessibility.

According to the Telco industry regulator in Kenya, the Communications Authority, high-speed fiber subscriptions doubled during the financial year 2017/2018 to stand at 135,964 from 54,700, posted the previous year.

EIB Vice President, Ambroise Fayolle, noted that with regards to how mobile services are used, Kenya is ahead of Europe, and both the market and possibilities are growing fast.

“One attention point is the coverage, which is why we are happy to support Telkom’s growth strategy in expanding its 3G and 4G networks across the country. This loan will also benefit its fixed broadband network; a service which is widely seen as a basic need for businesses to be competitive in a global market,” he said.

“Telkom’s focus is to be Kenya’s preferred Data network, which will be done by evolving into a stronger and future-fit Telco. The strategic support from the EIB will give impetus to Telkom’s data network expansion, that has seen Telkom consistently enhance indoor coverage, expand our 4G network, optimize our 3G network, thereby boosting our capacity to handle mobile data traffic, in response to growing customer demand,” said the Telkom CEO, Mugo Kibati.

Telkom’s network expansion focus has also seen it partner with Loon LLC, a sister company to Google and a subsidiary of Alphabet, to pilot an innovative 4G/LTE access network service in Kenya, using high altitude balloons, that will act as floating cell towers.

According to the chief executive, all the initiatives Telkom Kenya is making are geared towards expanding the telcos data network and footprint, to connect the under-served and un-served, in line with the company’s growth strategy.

“Moreover, this will allow us to bring better quality Data services to more Kenyans,” Kibati added.

Kenya’s Telco industry regulator, the Communications Authority states that about 99 percent of Internet subscribers access the Internet via mobile phones and other mobile devices. The Data/Internet market is expected to continue exhibiting similar trends into 2019.