Policies for Prosperity

-Telecommunications Network
Infrastructure in Kenya
PRESENTATION
January 2009
 Introduction

• The Telecommunication sector has undergone major

milestones in the last couple of decades. Due to
technology convergence, nations consider
telecommunications technology to be part of the
Information and communication technology (ICT)
which is the driver of economies in the 21st century.
• The availability of a robust telecommunications
network allows for a rapid and free flow of
information, which increases overall economic
efficiency by ensuring that decisions made by
economic actors take into account all available
relevant information.
• The Government of Kenya has recognized the
importance of ICT in economic development and has
initiated major steps to promote its use.

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• Kenya ICT policy was approved and gazetted in march 2006. The
policy was based on Kenya’s Economic Recovery Strategy for
Wealth and Employment Creation.
• The vision of the ICT policy is “a prosperous ICT-driven Kenyan
society”. Its mission is “to improve the livelihoods of Kenyans by
ensuring the availability of accessible, efficient, reliable and
affordable ICT services”.
• Among the challenges that the policy seeks to address is the ICT
infrastructure and policy, legal and regulatory framework.
• Provision of modern telecommunications infrastructure and
information networks is recognized as key to rapid economic and
social development of the country.

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• The policy states that “the overall Government
objective for the sector is to optimize its
contribution to the development of the Kenyan
economy as a whole by ensuring the availability of
efficient, reliable and affordable telecommunication
services throughout the country.”
•  From the ICT policy, two broad sub-sector policies
will be analyzed namely the telecommunication
sub-sector policy and the Information Technology
sub-sector policy.

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• Reforms in the ICT sector have facilitated licensing
of additional service providers making the services
relatively more available, accessible and
affordable.
• The ICT telecommunication sub-sector has
recorded a high growth rate over the years
supported by heavy investment according to 2008
economic survey report.
• The performance of the sub-sector was further
boosted by the introduction of the wireless
technology by Telkom Kenya and local loop
operators for providing telephone services.
Growth in subscriber base and exchange capacity
for fixed, wireless and mobile network led to an
improved total tele-accessibility that stood at 35.0
in 2007 compared to 9.9 in 2006.

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 Table 1: Telecommunication Statistics

Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Fixed line 404,990 420,370 446,30 490,000 508,000 508236 517,131 518,42 503,90
capacity 2 3 3
Fixed 1.018 1.024 1.042 1.042 1.021 0.86 0.86 0.86 0.90
Teledensity
Number of 292,131 309,379 321,48 328,116 328,158 279,88 286,729 293,36 264,88
wire line 2 4 4 2
subscribers
Subscribers 278,280 294,600 303,99 309,878 309,070 265,59 271,925 279,07 243,87
in urban 6 8 9 5
areas
13,426 14,779 17,486 18,238 19,288 14,446 14,803 14,285 26,668
Subscribers
in rural areas

Number of 8,184 8,684 9,135 9,264 9,964 9,273 8,273 7,913 5,805
Payphones

Source CCK database

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 Table 2: Mobile Telephony Subscription

Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 March

2008
Number of 1,590,785 2,546,15 5,263,67 7,340,3 11,440,0 11,986,0
subscribers 7 6 17 77 07
Mobile 4.95 7.77 15.74 21.62 33.65 35.25
penetration
(%)
Source CCK database

Table 3: Mobile coverage

Year 2004 2005 2006 2007

Number of BTS 626 1,144 1,606 1,924
Population 52% 62% 65% 77%
coverage
Land
Source: coverage 11%
CCK database, Safaricom 13%
and Celtel coverage maps 19% 27%
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• Review of Telecommunication Infrastructure covers fixed
telephone and wireless telecommunication, mobile
telecommunication, and data communications services.
• Review of Telecommunication and Internet Services covers
availability, accessibility, affordability, and quality of services.
knowledge and skills uptake has also been reviewed.
• Further, the chapter reviews planned information and
communication infrastructure projects including :
– The East African Marine Systems (Teams)
– National Terrestrial Fibre Optic Network Project
– Government Common Core Network (GCCN)
– Data Centre/Data Recovery Centre

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• Kenya has been benchmarked with other countries that have a similar
history in terms of competitiveness and network readiness. The
countries compared with are Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Uganda,
Mauritius, Malaysia, and Singapore. The ICT strategies and policies in
these countries are reviewed and lessons drawn for Kenya to adopt.
• Globally, countries have effectively leverage ICT in pursuit of prosperity.
According to the Global competitive index (GCI) 2008, Kenya ranked 93rd ,
overall improvement of six places from the previous year.
• The paper identifies weaknesses in Kenya ICT Strategies and proposes
alternatives .
• The chapter concludes with recommended strategies and policy
direction for Kenya to consider in order to effectively leverage ICT in
pursuit of a prosperous nation.

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 Table 4: International Gateway Bandwidth

Year 2005 2006 2007

International gateway downlink bandwidth 89.89 100.9 337.18
(Mbps) 6
International gateway uplink bandwidth 70.28 73.47 147.14
(Mbps)
Total International gateway bandwidth 160.17 174.4 485.14
(Mbps)
Source: CCK Database 3

Table 5: Internet Subscribers

2001/0 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07
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Number of licensed ISPs 66 72 76 78 51 51

Users by ITU 200,00 400,000 1,000,00 1,054,9 1,111,00 2,770,2

(estimates) 0 0 20 0 96
Internet subscribers per 0.65
100 inhabitants 3.17 3.28 3.39 8.29

1.29
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Source:Internet
Dial-up Telkom Kenya, Internet Market Study Analysis
 Table 6: Global Competitive and Networked
Readiness Indexes

Kenya Uganda South Mauritius Ghana Egypt Malaysia Singapore

Africa
The Networked Readiness Index 2007–2008 rankings
Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score

92 3.34 109 3.06 51 4.05 53 3.96 - - 63 3.74 26 4.82 5 5.49

The Global Competitiveness Report 2008–2009

Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score

93 3.84 128 3.35 45 4.41 57 4.25 102 3.62 81 3.98 21 5.04 5 5.53

E-government ranking
Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank Score

Source: The Networked Readiness Index 2007–2008 report, The Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008 and the United Nations e-
122 0.3474
Government 133
Survey 20080.3133 61 0.5115 63 0.5086 138 0.2997 79 0.4767 34 0.6063 23 0.7009

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Table 7: Social- Economic and Tele-density
Statistics
Kenya Ugand SA Mauriti Ghana Egypt Malaysi Singapo
a (2004) us a re
Population 38 31 48’832 1’271 23’946 76 27 4
(000,000)
GDP (U$) (2007) 26'950'500 10'160'47(2 257'172'821 7'520'126 7'624'16 131'095 186'720 132'152'926
(000)
006) (2006) (2006) (2006)

Fixed telephone 0.71 0.53 9.56 28.63 1.60 14.87 16.37 41.97
lines per 100
inhabitants.
(2007)

Mobile cellular 30.23 13.58 87.08 73.60 32.39 39.82 87.86 133.54
subscribers per
100 inhabitants.
(2007)

Computers per 1.44 1.67 8.36 17.52 0.58 4.87 23.41 76.87
100 inhabitants.
(2006) (2007) (2006) 2007)
(2005)

Internet users 7.99 2.51 8.16 26.95 3.75 13.95 55.67 68.00
per 100 (2006)
inhabitants.
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(2007)
  
Table 7: Social-Economic and Tele-density
Statistics
Kenya Ugand SA Mauriti Ghana Egypt Malaysi Singapo
a (2004) us a re
Broadband Internet 0.05 0.01 0.78 4.87 0.07 0.63 3.80 20.18
subscribers per 100
inhabitants. (2007)

% population 77.00 80.00 99.79 99.00 68.00 93.50 92.50 100.00

covered by mobile
Source:
signal ITU 2008 Database
(2007)

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