Focus on hot mobile market as Kenya hosts East Africa Com

Kenya’s telecommunications industry has seen many changes over the last few years. As mobile telephony grows in popularity in the country and the greater East Africa region, both mobile and fixed line operators are trying to position themselves to take advantage of new opportunities through infrastructure development and strategic acquisitions.

Telecommunications company Econet is launching its new mobile service – called “Yu” – into the Kenyan market in April of this year. As part of its market entry announcement and campaign, the new brand is sponsoring East Africa Com, the pre-eminent ITC conference and exhibition event in the region, being held in Nairobi on 1 & 2 April 2009.

Representatives from Yu will use the East Africa Com event as a platform to discuss Yu’s market entry strategy and tactics to gain market share in the lucrative Kenyan market going forward. Key to the new entrant’s success will be its ability to compete effectively with market incumbents such as France Telecom Group, who launched the Orange Kenya mobile service in September 2008. France Telecom Group also owns a majority stake in Telkom Kenya, the country’s fixed line operator.

Other regional mobile providers Zain and Safaricom will be watching new developments around the Yu brand with keen interest, as they also try to secure major share of Kenya’s fast expanding mobile market.

One thing is for certain – this fierce competition is good for the Kenyan consumer, with heavy price competition between mobile operators already evident. Apart from mobile voice services, companies are also trying to diversify their product offerings with mobile data and text-based services, giving the Kenyan mobile consumer a wide range of operators and packages to choose from.

Individuals and organisations seeking more insight into Kenya’s mobile and other ICT industries will be remiss not to attend the East Africa Com event, as it is seen as a showcase for mobile and fixed line operators in the region, with 27 operators already participating. Representatives from over 20 countries will converge on the Kenyan capital to learn more about investment opportunities, regulators, equipment manufactures and vendors in the East African region.

More information about the East Africa Com event can be found at www.comworldseries.com/eafrica.