Kenya Power has announced that it will from February 2017 start connecting homes in seven towns across the country to its fibre network to test the viability of the fibre optic cable business.
Through its subsidiary Kenya Power International, the listed firm says it seeks to connect at least 840 households in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nyeri, Meru, Mombasa, Nakuru and Eldoret.
“After this pilot we’ll go out to look for service providers who will roll out fibre to the home. We should come up with a revenue sharing model,” said Kenya Power chief executive Ben Chumo in an interview. He added that Kenya Power was currently seeking out an Internet service provider to partner with on the pilot.
In April this year, Kenya Power and Safaricom signed a deal to connect 12,000 homes to fibre in a 12-month pilot.
However, Dr Chumo said, the project is separate from the one planned in the seven towns. The MoU between the two firms, he said, ties Kenya Power to extend its fibre network to uncovered areas where Safaricom wishes to extend its business.
“Safaricom is looking at a potential number of homes that they want to connect. They can tell us this and we’ll extent the fibre” he said.
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Kenya Power has a 4,000 kilometre fibre optic network riding on its electricity infrastructure. The network is already leased to Internet service providers including Safaricom, Wananchi Group and Jamii Telecom.
The company last year announced that it was expanding investments in the telecommunications industry to include fibre to the home services. Fibre to the home could prove a lucrative venture for the utility firm.
Make savings Dr Chumo says that the goal is to turn the company’s fibre optic network into a neutral infrastructure leasable to any of the internet service providers (ISPs) operating in Kenya.
Kenyan Internet service providers are looking to grow fibre connectivity to homes amid rising internet usage in the country. The Communications Authority of Kenya estimates that there are 27,561 fibre subscriptions in the country. Nevertheless, companies in the sector say that they passed their cables by at least 100,000 homes.
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Kenya Power argues that its fibre-tothe-home services will exert downward pressure on the cost of fibre connectivity in the country. According to Dr Chumo, it costs about Sh7,000 to bury a meter of fibre optic cable, but the cost of hanging the cables on power poles is significantly lower.
Kenya Power also reckons that it will make savings by using its existing labour force for the work.
Source; Business Daily
