Competition set to lower Internet costs, says Ndemo

Kenyans are likely to see a drop in Internet prices largely due to increased competition as the number of service providers offering high speed connectivity through hand-held devices increases.

It also comes at a time when a majority of Kenyans consider mobile phones to be their preferred Internet access device.

According to the latest industry data from the regulator, Communication Commission of Kenya, 75 per cent of the 14.3 million Internet users in Kenya access it through mobile handsets making third generation (3G) connectivity the preferred mode of access due to its high speed.

Speaking to the Sunday Nation on the phone, Information and Communication Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo noted that almost all providers in the country now have 3G capabilities, and competition is likely to bring down prices.

Further drop

“Internet prices are likely to drop further this year considering the fact that we now have more providers with 3G capability,” he said.

However, the public is likely to receive such assurances with skepticism given that the same promises were made when the government and private sector were laying undersea cables. But no such benefits have been seen three years since the cables landed in Mombasa.

By September last year, Safaricom, the biggest service provider in Kenya, had the widest 3G network covering 1,500 of the 2,500 base stations across the country followed by Orange Telkom Kenya with 220 sites; Airtel was still testing its 3G network.

The slow roll-out of 3G networks was blamed on flaws by the ministry of Information and Communication in the licensing and allocation of the 3G spectrum when operators were unable to fully roll out infrastructure because of high license fees ($15 million or Sh1.4 billion) and capital expenditure.

Currently, Safaricom, Orange and Airtel offer 3G networks, and their competition is expected to render cost benefits to end-users as they battle for customers.

Mr Ndemo affirmed that the planned Private Public Partnership to help in the roll-out of the 4G (Long Term Evolution) network is on course, saying that it will be active in some parts of the country this year. 4G offers higher speed than the 3G technology, and its roll-out is expected to improve consumers’ experience.

Roll out

“The PPP is going on well, and we expect to roll out the 4G network in some areas soon,” said Mr Bitange.

The public/private organisation will bring together operators and equipment vendors to cooperate in the building, operating and maintaining a national open access network.

The move is seen as an acknowledgement of an earlier mistake committed by the government in the licensing and allocation of the 3G spectrum whose high cost resulted in a slow roll-out, even by bigger operators.

By forming the public-private partnership, the government set a global precedent where operators can share both active and passive components in the network, passing on the benefit to the consumers.

Active components are those parts responsible for generating, transmitting and receiving signals while passive components are those not involved with signal processing.