Telkom Kenya will tomorrow be the fourth player in the lucrative telecommunications industry.
The company will be joining Safricom, Zain and Econet Wireless in the competition. The company will initially rollout its services in Mombasa and Nairobi before going nationwide.
Telkom has invested close to $85 million in the project to compete for the 11, 5 million subscribers in the country. The company was before this venture a major player in the fixed-line phone services.
The fixed-line operator applied for the mobile licence last year and went on to sign an agreement with Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications giant, as the sole equipment supplier for its ambitious GSM network.
According to The east African Standard, Telkom Kenya CEO Dominique Saint Jean promised to give his competitors a run for their money with affordable cross network tariff rates alongside its other services.
This new venture reflects a strong commitment by Telkom Kenya to deliver superior communication experience to customers and will pave way for healthy competition in the cellular market. We will focus on quality service in order to survive the anticipated stiff competition,” Jean is quoted by The Standard.
Jean added that Telkom has a lean labour force of 3,000 employees down from 17,000 a year ago and 6,000 in December.
“We will retain our landline network especially in the rural areas where majority of low income earners live and in urban centres where there is no vandalism,” he said.
“We believe there is strong demand for GSM, fixed line and broadband offered as one package
Telkom Kenya Ltd., a joint venture between France Telecom SA and the Kenyan government.
By ITnewsAfrica.com Reporter