Kenya’s largest telecommunications provider Safaricom is to invest Sh30 billion to upgrade its infrastructure and offer subscribers better quality of data and voice services.
This was revealed through Business Daily saying the money will be spent in the next six months and will involve expansion and upgrade of its transmission stations around the country.
The upgrade will see 2G base stations converted to 3G, which offers faster Internet access, with the exercise expected to reduce the number of dropped calls in the network.
“Over the last year we have seen a lot of growth in data and voice traffic, which necessitates us to better our infrastructure,” Bob Collymore, Safaricom’s CEO, said in an interview.
At the moment, Safaricom has 3,140 2G base stations and another 1,847 running on 3G or third generation mobile telecommunication technology.
The 2G network coverage covers 90 per cent of the population while the 3G network stands at a smaller ratio of 58 per cent.
Mr Collymore said the fresh capital expenditure will focus on improving capacity, especially in congested urban areas.
He said the firm will also put up base stations in the remaining nine per cent of the country where it doesn’t have coverage, aiming at connecting Kenya fully.
In such places, the company will setup 2G networks that focus on voice and basic data services like SMS.
The 3G networks will also be improved in cities and other urban areas where consumption of data services is highest.
Source: CIO
