from MARIA MACHARIA in Nairobi, Kenya
NAIROBI, (CAJ News) – TELKOM Kenya has invested approximately US$100 million in a countrywide, long-term network expansion strategy.
The company, alongside Helios Investment Partners and the government, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ericsson and NEC XON to add 2 000 wireless sites onto Telkom Kenya’s network by 2023.
Ericsson and NEC XON are the telecommunications company and the systems integrator respectively.
Such investments, launched August last year, will culminate in enhanced service provision and customer experience.
To this end, Telkom is currently upgrading and expanding its 4G capacity in the Coast region.
“Two of our commitments are to better position our infrastructure asset base and services to drive digital transformation within our various customer segments thus providing them with more value, as well as bridge the digital divide through the expansion of our Mobile Data network,” Mugo Kibati, Telkom Kenya CEO, said.
The company identified its fibre infrastructure, mobile network and mobile financial services as areas for further investment and growth.
The new partnership enhances the overall strategy to scale up to 80 percent of the network to 4G.
Ericsson believes the partnership is in line with Kenya’s Vision 2030.
Through it, more people will have access to affordable internet that will enable business continuity and contribute to the economic growth in Kenya.
“This is just the beginning, with the LTE expansion setting the foundation to deploy 5G in the future,” said Todd Ashton, Vice President and Managing Director of Ericsson South and East Africa.
Willem Wentzel, GM of Wireless at NEC XON, said, “The rollout augments Telkom’s existing network infrastructure by delivering world-class quality of experience (QoE) to more customers across a much wider coverage area.”
The network expansion will also see Telkom connect more than 200 learning institutions and over 30 medical facilities to the internet, thereby boosting the use of remote learning and e-health solutions.
– CAJ News