[kictanet] Telkom seeks mobile licence

[alice]

Telkom seeks mobile licence
Published on October 1, 2007, 12:00 am
By Alari Alare and Agencies

Any party opposed to the granting of a mobile cellular operator
licence to Telkom Kenya has less than 60 days to lodge objections to
the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).

In a Kenya Gazette notice issued on Friday, CCK Director-General, Mr
John Waweru, said that Telkom had made application to the regulator
for the licence.

"Any public or local authority, company, person or body of persons
desirous of making any representation on or objection to the grant of
such licence must do so by a letter addressed to the commission on or
before the expiry of 60 days, effective from September 21 this year",
said Waweru, in the gazette notice.

Telkom Kenya has rolled out a CDMA-based network that has drawn
criticism from GSM operators.

Competitors argue the Telkom network works in the same way as theirs
and should therefore be subject to the $55 million licence fee they
paid.

Telkom did not have to pay for the CDMA service as the regulator
considered it a landline service, since it was originally designed to
roll out fixed services in remote areas, which are cheaper to reach
with wireless infrastructure.

But it aggressively entered the mobile market earlier this year with
cheap rates, shaking up the competition and creating a potentially
lucrative business Telkom executives say make it more attractive to
outside investors.

"The reason for granting the licence is to enable the applicant to
provide and operate mobile cellular services," said Waweru.

There are about 9.5 million mobile subscribers with Safaricom laying
claim to 6.3 million customers while Celtel Kenya, has about three
million.

The third GSM operator, Econet Wireless is yet to roll out, after
being licensed and allocated frequencies.

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