A request for expressions of interest has been circulated, and 500 new builds would apparently also be involved.
Orange currently owns or rents more than 900 sites in Kenya, with just over 40% of them running 3G as well as 2G technologies. Over 30% of sites are already shared, the majority being shared with Safaricom.
In June 2011, Telkom Kenya and Safaricom had announced that they were exploring the viability of an Indus-style, independently managed tower sharing firm to manage a pool of 4,000+ towers. Those talks were believed to have been deprioritised as tariff wars took hold in Kenya, but it now seems that Telkom Kenya (Orange) are once again considering substantial infrastructure sharing.
In December 2007, France Telecom acquired a 51% stake in Kenya’s incumbent operator, Telkom Kenya, through its holding company Orange East Africa, launching 3G services in 2011.
Kenya market overview
Mobile subscribers: 29.7m
Mobile penetration: 75.4%
Internet / data subscribers: 7.7m (of which 98.9% mobile, 9.4% broadband)
(Source: CCK, June 2012)
Cell sites: 5,565, of which 4,988 on-grid (GSMA)
Coverage: 89.1% (GSMA)
