Kenya Power Internet: National power provider Kenya Power is planning to connect millions of homes in rural Kenya to high speed internet.
This is a move in which the power provider is planning to diversify it revenue streams by tapping into the growing demand for data. Under the new move, Kenya Power will take on Telkom Kenya, Kenya Data Networks, Safaricom, Jamii Telecoms, AccessKenya, Essar Telecoms and Wananchi Group which have been serving the internet market.
“In the medium to long-term, the company is exploring the lit fibre business to increase the penetration of internet connectivity, particularly in the rural areas,” Kenya Power said. “The company’s extensive fibre network presently offers dark fibre services to the country’s major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to facilitate the provision of Internet services to the end buyer in the retail and enterprise segments across the country and neighbouring countries.”
As at the end of June 2021, Kenya Power customers stood at 8,278,203. This points to a potentially huge market that has so far been relying on the expensive mobile data packages offered by telecommunication firms such as Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom.
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However, ISP firms have also been tapping onto Kenya Power’s infrastructural network to supply high speed internet to homes. In 2010, Kenya Power signed a 20-year lease agreement worth $3.8 million (Sh. 421 million) with Safaricom for use of a pair of fibre cables. It also inked deals with telecoms firms Wananchi Group and Jamii Telecommunications with each signing five-year leases worth a total of $3.6 million (Sh. 403 million).
Internet Service Providers on the other hand currently charge between Sh. 1,000 and up to Sh. 5,000 monthly to connect customers in rural homes. Over the recent few years, Kenya Power has been on a loss making streak that ended in the full year ended June 30, 2021 when the firm posted a net profit of Sh. 1.5 billion. The profit was a huge recovery from the Sh. 939 million loss the power provider posted in the same period last year.