Kenya licenses new commercial internet providers

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2005

NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenya's telecommunication regulators approved licenses for three new companies to provide commercial satellite internet services in a bid to improve broadband access and boost development.

The Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) granted licenses to Kenya Data Networks, Jamii Telcoms and AFSAT Communications, a year after the expiry of the monopoly of the state-owned telcommunications giant Telkom Kenya.

"For the first time (Kenyans) will enjoy diversity in internet backbone and gateway services ... and lay the foundation for an e-society," CCK Director General Sammy Kirui said at a ceremony in Nairobi.

"We cannot talk of a networked economy where internet is unreliable," he said, adding that a main goal of granting the new licenses was to...