Telkom Kenya Awarded a Mobile Operator License

Kenya's telecoms regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has awarded a mobile operator license to Telkom Kenya, which has legalised its existing CDMA based fixed wireless network. The incumbent GSM operators had complained that Telkom Kenya's CDMA network was illegal as the company hadn't paid for an operating license that the regulator had considered to be a fixed wireless service. Since the launch though, Telkom Kenya has marketed the service as a mobile phone network in some areas.

Objections to the license being awarded have to be submitted to the regulator within 60 days.

"The reason for the grant of licence is to enable the applicant to provide and operate mobile cellular operator services," the CCK's Director General John Waweru told the Kenya Gazette.

Safaricom is currently the dominant mobile operator in the country, with a market share of nearly 78% according to the latest figures from the Mobile World subscriber database. Safaricom is itself 60% owned by Telkom Kenya - with 35% held by Vodafone Group and 5% held (controversially) by an unknown person. The other mobile operator in the country is Celtel and Econet Wireless expects to launch the country's third network by the end of this year.

Posted to the site on 1st October 2007