Telecoms.com

Nokia and Safaricom deploy FWA 5G slicing trial in Africa

Kit vendor Nokia and regional operator Safaricom have collaborated on what they are calling Africa’s first Fixed Wireless Access 5G slicing trial.

• 22 Aug 2022

Telkom Kenya hosts first commercial deployment of Loon

Alphabet’s novel solution to connecting the unconnected has had its first non-emergency deployment in Kenya.

• 07 Jul 2020

Bharti Airtel exploring acquisition of Telkom Kenya – report

Indian telco Bharti Airtel is reportedly in discussions to expand its presence in the Kenyan market through the acquisition of Telkom Kenya.

• 14 Jan 2019

Vodafone launches M-Pesa mobile money between Tanzania – Kenya

Vodafone has launched its mobile money transfer and payment service M-Pesa for transactions between Tanzania and Kenya, claiming it will offer a low cost means of remittance for the two countries’ inhabitants.

• 10 Mar 2015

Essar sells Kenyan operation yuMobile

Investment fund Essar Group has reached an agreement to offload its Kenyan telecom business to African carriers Safaricom and Airtel for $120m.

• 01 Sep 2014

Bitcoin mobile wallet launches in Kenya

Kenya has long been considered a pioneer of mobile money services, given the successful mobile payment system M-Pesa made its debut in the market. Now a recently launched project aims to combine M-Pesa with another pioneering currency technology, Bitcoin.

• 16 Jul 2013

Orange Kenya offloads tower management

Telkom Kenya, which operates fixed and mobile services under the Orange brand in the country, on Friday signed a 15 year outsourcing deal with Eaton Towers for the management of its passive network infrastructure.

• 14 Jun 2013

Safaricom threatens to pull out of LTE venture

Kenya’s Safaricom has said it will pull out of a joint venture to build an LTE network in the county if it is forced by its government to use the 2.6GHz frequency band. The company has pointed out that the 2.6GHz frequency band will make it be prohibitively expensive to build out an LTE network across the country, due to its limited range. Safaricom is instead seeking assurances that it will be able to use 700MHz, which requires far fewer base stations and has higher in building penetration capabilities.

• 20 Mar 2012

Kenya lowers “virtually all regulatory fees” for operators

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) said that it has lowered “virtually all regulatory fees”, including frequency fees. The move is the CCK’s first major general regulatory fees review since 2000.

• 07 Oct 2011

Safaricom takes M-Pesa to retailers

Kenyan operator Safaricom has partnered with retail chains Uchumi Supermarkets and Naivas, in order to give M-Pesa subscribers the ability to use the service to purchase goods in the stores.

• 01 Nov 2010

Orange extends African Lion network to Kenya

French mobile operator Orange has joined the Lion2 cable consortium in a pact to build a new submarine cable in the Indian Ocean, extending the Lion cable network to Kenya via the island of Mayotte.

• 27 Sep 2010

Zain outsources East Africa to NSN

African and Middle Eastern carrier Zain streamlined its East African operations this week, with the announcement Thursday that it has awarded three network outsourcing deals to Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN).

• 26 Nov 2009

Gateway moves in on Kenya

Pan-African network services firm Gateway Communications has scored three new licenses in Kenya, allowing it to build infrastructure in the country.

• 12 Nov 2009