Econet goes ‘live’ in Kenya

Econet Wireless Kenya will finally launch its mobile phone network today after braving five years of legal and financial setbacks.

This follows last week’s launch of its brand name Yu, and an initiative that allows subscribers with rivals Safaricom, Telkom Kenya and Zain to retain their old numbers once they switch to its network.

Its launch now brings the number of mobile telecommunication operators to four. Although it had been expected that the operator would launch with low tariffs compared to what other operators are offering, Econet marketing director, Ms Anna Othoro, said Yu would not engage in a price war.

“We are not going to launch with tariffs that we cannot sustain in the long term as a business,” said Ms Othoro.

Yu will be targeting youth in the 18 to 35 age bracket, a segment it hopes to capture with a multimedia service to be launched soon.

The company says the current mobile penetration levels of 33 per cent show there is potential for the new entrants. Its services will first be rolled out in Nairobi followed by Mombasa, but it expects to go countrywide by March, next year.

Site sharing
The firm has entered into a site -sharing agreement with its competitors. It is also partnering with 150 mobile operators globally for its roaming services.

Econet was first licensed in 2003 but was unable to roll out its operations due to protracted court battles involving its ownership. These battles ended two years ago after Econet agreed to withdraw the cases it had filed against CCK and former Information minister Raphael Tuju.

Econet’s entry into the telecoms market is expected to add competitive pressure in an industry that has been dominated by two players for nearly 10 years.

The firm received a major financial boost early this year when Econet International, one of the consortium members, sold parts of its share to Essar India which has agreed to pump in $500 million into the roll-out.

The latest drive to launch the company’s brand started last September, when Econet paid the balance of Sh840 million on its Sh1.9 billion licence fee and took on board new partners.This was nearly half the Sh3.9 billion that Safaricom and Celtel paid for their licences in 2000.

Business Daily Africa