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| Kenya Power managing director Ben Chumo with Safaricom chief executive Bob Collymore |
Kenya Power is angling to connect 12,000 homes in Nairobi to the Internet through its fibre-optic network in a 12-month pilot stage that has already kicked off.
The firm has identified Safaricom as its partner in the project, and through its subsidiary Kenya Power International, the three signed a memorandum of understanding ushering in the project.
While Safaricom will invest in the fibre business and recover its investment through a lease agreement that is yet to be signed, Kenya Power will provide its vast infrastructure covering 4,000km in length of fibre-optic cable.
“The agreement will promote development and improvement of additional telecommunications infrastructure for effective and efficient provision of telecommunications services to both public and private institutions through provision of adequate, reliable and competitively priced fibre networks,” Kenya Power CEO Ben Chumo said.
DIGGING TRENCHES
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said the project would accelerate the rate of connection to homes, and reduce the inconvenience caused by digging trenches to lay the underground fibre-optic cable grid.
Already, Kenya Power is leasing out the fibre to Safaricom, which is its biggest customer. Wananchi Group, Liquid Telecom, Jamii Telecom and Airtel are also its customers.