MTN Business Kenya’s MD Tom Omariba believes the consortium or public-private partnership model will most suit the deployment of 4G or Long Term Evolution (LTE) in the country.
This is according to report by Capital FM which quoted Omariba as saying that the establishment of a 9-member consortium to oversee the deployment of LTE is the best approach because it will lead to enhanced and more efficient ICT services.
Omariba is reported to have taken part in a panel discussion on digital ecosystem evolution at the 9th East Africa Com conference held recently in Nairobi.
In the discussion Omariba mentioned the benefits associated with LTE infrastructure, including empowering users with increased data speeds and volumes – and that deployment would result in a significant decrease in the cost of data.
However, a lack of activity has been identified as a challenge and this is reportedly due to some members of the consortium expressing the desire to deploy their own LTE networks.
In an extract taken from the Capital FM report, Omariba is quoted directly as saying, “The private sector is selfish that’s why we’ve delayed the roll-out of the LTE/4G network in the country. There’s been no much progress made by the consortium since they were set up apart from lots of stakeholder meetings and discussions with various teams including legal, financial and taxation.”
Staff Writer
