Debate Emerging among East Africa Telecoms Regarding Infrastructure Sharing

Telecom operators should share infrastructure to speed up development of the industry and suppress the cost of data according Dr. Bitange Ndemo, the honorary chairperson for the Alliance for Affordable Internet. This statement was made while he was speaking at Mobile East Africa 2014 event in Nairobi on Wednesday.

Ndemo also said that telecoms should come together and share infrastructure for the sake of the industry. He added, “Companies should share infrastructure to bring down the cost of doing business.” But in a separate interview, acting chief executive officer of Liquid Telecom Kenya, Ben Roberts, said that regulators should not involve themselves with matters such as building fiber optic networks.

“Should regulators build fiber optics? The regulator is there to stimulate the telecoms and they can do that by making the environment better for us. Telecoms companies are good at this. We know what we are doing,” Roberts advised ITWeb Africa. He went on to add that the only time when intervention is needed is when there are no players from the private sector building network infrastructure.

However, Roberts encouraged more co-ordination in the putting up of infrastructure. “When it comes to digging up fiber, these things need coordination,” Roberts indicated. He also said that government bodies who are in charge of infrastructure should allow more opportunity to lay down fiber optics.

Source: ITWeb Africa