Kenya’s Ministry of ICT has announced Kenya will soon have a fourth generation long term evolution (4G LTE) mobile network, with the ministry set to release a spectrum policy for public comment.
The Star reports cabinet secretary at the Ministry of ICT Dr Fred Matiangi told a special meeting with journalists at the ministry’s office in Nairobi: “After receiving the memoranda with various comments on the policy, we will hold a stakeholders’ meeting and then present the policy to the cabinet for approval.”
He said the consultation process should take between three and five months, adding that the public should present their views on how the spectrum should be managed because it is a national resource.
He said: “We have proposed we go by the public private partnerships ownership model so as to avail the broadband in wholesale basis but there are actors who think we we should auction licences after grouping the spectrum into two or three bands.”
The Communications Authority of Kenya currently gives operators licences for either second generation (2G) or third generation (3G) networks.
The National Treasury approved the proposed ownership model last year, requiring the government to provide frequencies and interested stakeholders to invest in order to begin the development of the network. The operators were Safaricom, Airtel, Orange, yu, Liquid Telecom and MTN Business.
However, the rollout failed as Safaricom pulled out citing that the government was sluggish in getting shareholders to agree.
