Kenya: Telecoms wrangle of high 3G fee

  1. Posted on Monday 14 December 2009 - 10:10
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    Andualem Sisay, AfricaNews reporter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Phone: Eric Lafforgue
    Telkom-Kenya requested the Communication Commission of Kenya to end Safaricom's monopoly over a 3G service provision in Kenya. CCK has to reduce the US$ 25 million 3G-license fee, which companies are required to pay to provide the service, according to Telkom-Kenya petition to the Commission.
    Mobile phone is everywhere in Libya...The 2 networks are owned by Khadafi sons... The favourite game of the libyans is to use their phone in the plane until it's too high to get some network! © Eric Lafforgue
    It has indicated that the fee the Commission is asking telecommunications companies is prohibitive. In addition, it might frustrate the industry’s efforts to avail affordable communication services, given the costs involved in deploying 3G networks.

    The operator is the second in many months to petition the industry regulator to review the 3G-license fee. Two months ago, Zain-Kenya said the high costs of acquiring the license in a competitive environment would see operators take longer than necessary to recoup investments due to low returns.

    This is indicated during Telkom-Kenya’s announcement of getting CCK's approval to commence 3G testing on its Orange Mobile network. The testing will be for a period of one year within Nairobi, after which it would be required to pay the license fee and deploy the network nationally.

    Mickael Ghossein chief executive officer of Telkom-Kenya told the media that “having already invested a lot in this project, we would be happy to get a positive response from CCK.”

    Currently, Safaricom is the only firm operating a 3G network, having paid the 25 million USD fee in 2007. The firm has in the past insisted that all operators pay same fee to ensure a level playing field.

    Ghossein, however, said the three years Safaricom has operated a 3G network as a monopoly should have been ample time to recoup initial investments and even reap significant earnings.

    3G is a generic name for a set of mobile technologies which use a host of high-tech infrastructure networks, handsets, base stations, switches and other equipment. 3G allows mobiles to offer high-speed Internet access, data, video and CD-quality music services.

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