| Kenya’s government might divide Telkom Kenya into three entities and outsource some of its services.
Minister for information and Communications Raphael Tuju announced the impending separation of Telkom. The Kenya Telecommunication Training College (KTTC) and Gilgil Telecommunication Industry (GTI), two major Telkom departments, are likely to be affected. GTI assembles telecommunication equipment. Tuju said the government will make their decision based on a report from consultants hired to advise the Government on the future of Telkom. The minister said the Government would not be bound by the recommendations since there could be other options of restructuring Telkom.
Tuju said Telkom needs appropriate staffing levels to free financial resources that would be used for network modernisation and expansion. Last month, the Government announced it would lay-off 12,000 Telkom staff to free up Sh400 million annually.
Last week, Tuju swapped the former Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) Director General Sammy Kirui with John Waweru, who was heading Telkom Kenya. Kirui has announced plans to evaluate Telkom with a view to changing its business model to make it more competitive ahead of privatisation. A privatised Telkom should speed up Kenya's uptake of information and communications technologies.
Tuju said the Government would continue encouraging competition in the fixed line segment to encourage wider availability of ICT-based services, most of which are concentrated in Nairobi.
"56% of the fixed telecommunications network is concentrated in Nairobi with the remaining 44 distributed across other regions," said Tuju.
Coast and Rift Valley provinces have 12% and 11% of the remaining 44%. The rest of the regions share 21%. Tuju said 90 administrative divisions in Kenya lack telecommunication services and estimated that people walk up to 141km to reach access points.
He said the Government must develop a universal access strategy to expand the reach of communication. This, he said, could be achieved by creating up to 49 Internet points of presence at the district level and 90 ICT access points at the division level.
Source: The East African Standard / Intelecon Research and Consulting |