As much as I would want to, I cannot tell you when or how Telkom paid the license fees, what I can tell you instead is that upon meeting the requisite requirements, one can seek a license from CCK employing the use of various fixed wireless technologies, however unlike Telkom, coverage would be limited as the applicant would not be licensed as a national operator. Additionally Telkom Kenya is duty bound to pay a revenue based annual license fee to CCK for its licenses. In Kenya there are certain licenses available only through the auction process and several others available 'over the counter'. Telkom licenses are mostly 25 year licenses dated from 1999 and renewable for another 15 years after that period. The most accurate answers to your questions can be best obtained from the regulator or in the alternate the Ministry. Other key references would be the Kenya Communications Act of 1998 which set up the legal framework for the establishment of Telkom Kenya. Regards, Mike On 7/21/07, Joseph Okech <okechukwu@gmail.com> wrote:
Please I beg tell me when Telkom paid the license fees and how the bidding was done? Simply because their former MD was appointed into CCK does not give them the right to ALL telco licenses in the country, every single license has to be auctioned or awarded openly with full license fees paid.
rgds, Okech
Telkom is a licenced operator using fixed wireless technology. The key word here is fixed. On the same argument if the 'true mobile' operators want to obtain 3G and 3.5G frequencies the regulator has a duty to ensure that
On Saturday July 21 2007 02:45:20 Mike Theuri wrote: the
government is not deprived of much needed revenue by holding a competitive tender or auction for the 3G frequencies which have fetched hundreds of millions of dollars in other African countries.
---------- https://www.ntra.gov.eg/english/News_NewsDetails.asp?PID=36&ID=94
Vodafone Egypt have agreed to pay LE3.34bn (US$584m) + 2.4% of total revenues as a licence fee for 3G spectrum. Vodafone Egypt recently declared an annual turnover of LE6.8bn and revealed that approximately 22% ( LE1.5bn) of this will be Free Cash Flow.
However, it is not as much as the third player, Etisalat, agreed to pay LE16.7bn (US$2.9bn) for a 2G/3G licence which was equivalent to 3.4% of Egypt GDP. ----------
It is indicative that at least one mobile provider has indicated that it is already using such technology, which per their original GSM license (Annex A) is not catered for. What payment if any has been received by the commission on behalf of the government for these frequencies by the mobile operator and for the issuance of a new 3G licence? I am certain that TKL has met its licence obligations and thus is a bonafide operator, secondly TKL holds a licence that allows it to provide these services nationwide in addition to its basket of licences. If the TKL's competitors want to demand that TKL pay fees for a licence (which it already has) then they should similarly be prepared to pay licence fees after competing in a tender to be able to operate 3G networks.
Mike
On 7/20/07, Joseph Okech <okechukwu@gmail.com> wrote:
I don't think Telkom goes mobile is a problem & its never about competition, the problem is with the regulatory infrastructure in place to be honored, that is if all mobile operators have to pay a mobile license, then all have to pay a mobile license without any exceptions. If all mobile service providers are to pay VAT and exercise duty, then this has to be across the board.
rgds, Okech
On Thursday July 19 2007 21:38:48 Mike Theuri wrote:
"Competition is healthy. If other people complain, they should know that Kenyans now have a choice," Telkom Kenya Chief Market Officer Bernard Rubia told Reuters in an interview.
Rubia says it was "debatable" whether partnering with an outside
investor
was necessary for Telkom to turn a profit. Job cuts that will downsize
Telkom
to
4,000 employees from 18,000 by September are already realising savings
of
250 million shillings ($3.7 million) a month against 1.2 billion in
billings.
"We should be given a five-year window to prove ourselves," he said,
adding
shares should be sold to the public in the meantime.
================
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL19935122.html
Kenya's state-owned telecoms operator goes mobile Thu 19 Jul 2007, 13:40 GMT
By C. Bryson Hull
NAIROBI, July 19 (Reuters) - State-owned Telkom Kenya is making an aggressive foray into the east African country's wireless mobile and data markets, aiming for rebirth as a sleek operator before privatisation due to start later this
year.
The loss-making state company, which has a monopoly on landlines,
earlier
this month rolled out the lowest mobile phone tariff in Kenya and stepped up advertising to bring in customers to its brand-new wireless network.
That has sparked complaints from the other two mobile operators in
Kenya,
market leader Safaricom and Celtel Kenya, who say the state company has an
unfair
regulatory advantage.
"Competition is healthy. If other people complain, they should know that Kenyans now have a choice," Telkom Kenya Chief Market Officer Bernard Rubia told Reuters in an interview.
"And they will choose based on reliability, consistency and
affordability."
Telkom may seem an unlikely choice -- customers have long complained
that
inefficiency, corruption and monopoly control of landlines have kept Telkom's prices high and service poor, but it is now in the middle of a major restructuring.
And Kenyans are quick to go for the best deal. It is not uncommon for someone to have multiple phone lines to take advantage of the cheapest rate or to avoid the steep expense of calling from one network to the other.
On a trial run since September, the company's mobile subsidiary Telkom Wireless so far has 150,000 subscribers and is adding an average of 1,000 per
day,
Rubia said.
"Our target is by the end of June next year we will have hit our 1
million
mark," he said adding the average customers spends 800 Kenya shillings ($11.92) a month.
That is dwarfed by the 6.8 million Safaricom has out of an estimated 8-9 million users in the nation of 36 million people.
BANKING ON CDMA
Telkom has rolled out a CDMA network to about 70 percent of the country
to
compete with Safaricom and Celtel, which operate a GSM network like most mobile companies in Africa.
Rubia says the choice of CDMA was to lure Kenyan customers who get irritated by congestion on the GSM networks.
"One of our towers is equivalent to four of theirs in terms of
capacity,"
he
said.
A second benefit is to cash in on its data capabilities, which are
faster
than GSM. By September, Rubia says Telkom will offer EVDO, a mobile broadband data technology.
But like other Internet data providers in Kenya, they will not be able
to
use the maximum capacity until the country gets a fibre optic connection to
the
Internet backbone.
Currently it gets it via expensive satellite links that limit bandwidth
and
market growth. Rubia says he expects at least one of two projects to
give
Kenya a wired link to the outside world to be ready by "the back end of next year."
Telkom Wireless customers will be able to access EVDO via mobile
handsets
and also wireless desktop phones.
The latter often serve as Internet links in rural areas where there is little or no infrastructure -- and where mobile operators say there are still huge untapped profits in Africa.
The government wants to sell a 51 percent stake in Telkom to a strategic partner, with an eye on an IPO that would eventually sell 30 percent to
the
public. Proposals are due to be opened by early November.
Rubia says it was "debatable" whether partnering with an outside
investor
was necessary for Telkom to turn a profit. Job cuts that will downsize
Telkom
to
4,000 employees from 18,000 by September are already realising savings
of
250 million shillings ($3.7 million) a month against 1.2 billion in
billings.
"We should be given a five-year window to prove ourselves," he said,
adding
shares should be sold to the public in the meantime.