Telkom Kenya MD Mugo Kibati. Following the collapse of merger talks with Airtel, Telkom Kenya unveiled a new strategy looking to grow its market share and reverse years of losses. In the strategy, the State-owned telecommunications firm is betting big on digital infrastructure and platforms while divesting from voice and SMS that have been a staple for the industry. Telkom Kenya Chief Executive Mugo Kibati last month said the company will not close its voice division entirely, but would instead focus on new growth areas, driven largely by its digital infrastructure network. “We have seen a change in global consumer trends and the demand for bandwidth, broadband and data has increased significantly,” said Kibati. “Given our national fibre network and landing stations, we are well-positioned to chart this future path for the company.” Telkom Kenya already owns and operates the National Fibre Optic (Nofbi) cable, the 4,300-kilometre government broadband network that is supposed to be the primary network for county governments and the public sector. Nofbi is a strategic asset for Telkom and its exemption from the assets that would have accrued to the then proposed merged entity, Airtel-Telkom, significantly weakened the value of the deal. The two firms had proposed to have Telkom-Airte l operate Nofbi and bill the government at market rates. However, the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) objected, saying Telkom’s spectrum and fibre resources should revert to the government as a condition of the merger. In addition to ownership in Nofbi, Telkom also has a stake in at least three other submarine cables and has over the years ramped up investment and partnerships in new fibre networks. Last year, the company announced it was entering another partnership on the Djibouti African Regional Express (Dare 1) undersea cable, a 4,000, 36TB fibre network expected to have the largest capacity in the region. Telkom is hoping this fibre network will give it an edge in the broadband market, and the firm is already piloting a new fibre network to the home service. “We are about a month into our pilot run, although I can’t go into the specifics at the moment,” said Kris Senanu, managing director of Telkom Digital, the division that was formerly enterprise and that now runs the telco’s digital offerings. Telkom Digital also entails the company’s wholesale and cloud business, with Kebaso Mokogi named the Chief Wholesale and Cloud officer. “Making use of our […]

Full Article at www.standardmedia.co.ke