Telecom Lead Africa: Safaricom Kenya and Bharti Airtel are planning
to sign an agreement that will enable the two mobile giants to lay a fiber network
in Africa.
The strategic move is expected to reduce costs
associated with the involvement of third parties whom they rely on for their Internet.
Safaricom said the company initiated talks with other mobile
operators including Telkom Kenya and Essar, but only Airtel took up the bid.
We are going to roll out the fiber in the coming financial
year. It will involve partnering with other mobile operators. Safaricom and
Airtel have a long standing Tower Sharing Agreement and we have similar
agreements with Telkom Kenya and Essar. Therefore, collaborating in fiber optic
network deployment is an extension of this and will ensure that operators
minimize costs while avoiding duplication,” said Bob Collymore, CEO of
Safaricom.
The increase in cheaper smart phones, such as IDEOS and
other tablets, has resulted in a data surge, where users need wireless Internet.
Kenya’s Communications Commission (CCK) says that this has seen the mobile
operators upgrade their networks to better and high-speed wireless services,
according to a report in Business Daily.
We have mentioned in the past that the strategy remains one
of in filling” which means that we focus on building fibre in the areas that
have no infrastructure whilst avoiding unnecessary duplication,” Collymore
added.
Airtel
Africa goes green with Ericsson
Recently, Airtel announced its contract with Ericsson, a
global mobile telecom equipment and soluitons provider. The contract will
include the upgrading of 250 diesel powered base stations in Nigeria with
E-site, a new green energy solution from Flexenclosure.
impact. The contract serves as an agreement that Ericcson will be responsible
for implementation and maintenance services for all the sites.
technology provides power through renewable energy like solar and wind power in
order to help businesses go off-grid for their power demand. Power is obtained
through the renewable resources and then stored in a battery bank as well as
used to power the plants.
