Mombasa residents are about to enjoy much faster internet speeds after mobile service provider and Safaricom’s competitor Telkom, began setting up a fibre loop in the region.
The move was made, in order to meet the telecommunication Giant’s growing demand for faster internet in the Coastal region for both individuals and businesses and to also improve the quality of its services to its customers.
Telkom Chief Excecutive Officer Mugo Kibati says the telco would set up the fibre loops in all large towns in the country, as it seeks to establish itself as the preferred network in the country.
A fibre loop is a channel which allows connection of many servers and computer storage devices without using costly fibre switches.
Mr. Kibati further added that “This demonstrates our commitment to connect the people that keep Kenya on the move with the provision of fast, reliable internet.It further serves to entrench our position as Kenya’s preferred data network,”.
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He also said the capacity will not only enhance customer data experience, but also boost reseller capacity to other telcos and internet service providers across East Africa, who purchase from Telkom.
Metro loop
The company in a press release, said the laying of the new metro loop will connect Mombasa, linking it to the company’s over 10,000km network of the national backbone and the 1,000km redundancy backbone between Mombasa and Tororo.
The setting up of the metro loops is part of Telkom’s Sh1 billion plan to expand its network for both voice and data services.
Telkom said the expansion plan will include 3G and 4G mobile connectivity as well as Fibre-to-the Building (FTTB) network for its corporate customers.
The firm is investing heavily in its data expansion and recently completed a fibre metro pool in Nairobi and its environs.
Mr Kibati further noted that for the broadband revolution to be a reality, architectural transformations are important to break metropolitan bottlenecks that will help enable internet demand into opportunities.
The telecommunications company said it is committed to providing innovative, accessible and simple communication solutions that will suit their customer’s needs.
1 Billion Kenyan Shillings and More
In January 2019 Telkom Kenya pumped 1 billion Kenyan Shilljngs into growing its 3G and 4G network to improve voice and data connection for its customers. It also set up new base transceiver stations for its network and improved the quality and capacity of existing sites. This is in addition to the $40 million (4.1 billion Kenyan Shillings) loan the Telco received last year from the European Investment Bank, which it said it would use in part to continue its expansion.
Telkom has also made gains in terms of its market share for mobile data subscriptions. In the quarter ending September 2018, the telco commanded 7.7 per cent of the market share compared to 7.2 per cent in June of the same year. Additionally, the total mobile subscriptions recorded by Telkom Kenya Limited rose from September 2017 by 21.09 per cent to stand at 4,188,517 at the end of September 2018.
