ICTworks by Inveneo

Mobile phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson will finally be entering the Kenyan mobile market by partnering with Safaricom to distribute Xperia X10 line of Android smart phones, according to Capital FM Kenya.

Country Manager Jonas Gronqwist said on Tuesday that the company aims to capitalise on the mobile phone boom in the country as well as introduce internet-enabled phones that will enhance internet penetration.

"If you look at the Kenyan market there are more mobile phones than fixed lines; the internet penetration is going straight up. I believe the possibilities are enormous for the coming two to three years," Mr Gronqwist said.

All I can say is its about time. Nokia, and now Apple are already all over the Kenya market. Safaricom even launched its own solar power phones. Sony Ericsson needs to step up and join the sales frenzy.

Hat tip to Kiwanja/Ken Banks.

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Safaricom will begin a technical trial of the 4G (fourth generation) technology on its network within the next two months. The roll out of the next generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology (4G) will be carried out Huawei Technologies. The two companies signed a three year strategic partnership under which Safaricom selected Huawei as its vendor of choice for the supply of its core network requirements, and roll out the 4G network at a cost of KES12bn.

Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph said once the 4G network becomes operational, Safaricom customers will be able to enjoy high speeds of 600megabit per seconds or 1.5 gigabit per seconds in both downloads and uploads.

The new technology will enable Safaricom to deliver a combination of services like data, voice, and video and download services like iTunes which will be billed through a different charging system.

He said in the next two years the company will overhaul its current system to march the precepts of the LTE technology .The first phase will include installation of the operating system for the prepaid system, followed by upgrading of the postpaid system which will later will include converging both systems to have one billing system.

Good news for Kenyan ICT companies. Kenya's Ministry of Information and Communication says that according to the latest research compiled by technology firm Internet World Stat, Kenya has close to 3.5 million internet users or 8.6 percent of the Kenyan population.

But that's not enough for Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo. According to Capital Business, Dr. Ndemo says, “We have to actively increase the number of users to a point operators are able to reduce costs,” and to do that, the Ministry was looking towards conducting a countrywide sensitisation campaign in an effort of increasing the number of Internet users.

This is a great investment by the government of Kenya - doing a awareness campaign our the benefits of ICT access.