‘Fogotten lot’ gets mobile coverage

Residents of far-flung areas that have in the past been deemed commercially unviable by telcos will soon be able to make calls without having to travel long distances.

This will be made possible by the Government’s move to implement a project to bridge telecommunications access gaps.

An estimated 2.66 million people in different parts of the country cannot make phone calls without having to walk long distances and even then, they are not guaranteed quality service during calls. Communications Authority (CA) said it had awarded Safaricom and Telkom contracts to roll out mobile networks in 78 sub-locations that hitherto had no mobile coverage.

The two telecommunication firms will spend a combined Sh1.5 billion in building infrastructure in these areas.

Bridge divide

The money to put up the networks will come from the Universal Services Fund (USF), overseen by CA. The fund was set to help bridge the ICT divide in the country through investments in infrastructure and other aspects of ICT to areas that operators have deemed commercially unviable to invest in. The kitty is financed by contributions from operators, who pay 0.5 per cent of their gross revenues to the fund.

CA Director-General Francis Wangusi said the two telcos were selected after an invitation to the country’s three mobile operators to bid for the tender towards end of last year.

He said 164 sub-locations had been identified as having no access to basic mobile infrastructure.

Mr Wangusi said Telkom would deploy mobile network in 18 sub-locations while Safaricom would put up network in the remaining 60 sub-locations.