Safaricom Acquires Secure National Fibre Back-Bone in Deal with KPLC

By Millicent Njeri / Press Release

Listed telecoms operator Safaricom has signed a deal with national power utility Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) that allows it to use the latter’s national distribution network to expand its data footprint across Kenya. Under the terms of the contract signed by the two firms, Safaricom will get a chance to operate an optical fibre pair on KPLC’s state-of-the-art Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) system as built on the national power grid.

The announcement presents a major strategic move by Safaricom. Where hitherto it has had to solely rely on other data carriers, the contract with KPLC gives Safaricom superior backhaul connectivity for its international capacity and effectively brings the company’s infrastructure up to par with that of traditional trunk providers in the country such as Telkom and Kenya Data Networks.

“With this new fibre system, we are entering a new realm as a data carrier. This will be a major complement to the massive investments we have made in the country’s main undersea cable ventures. We will definitely be offering a better end-to-end data proposition to both our retail and wholesale customers,” said Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph.

The new fibre system is also unlikely to be susceptible to cable cuts as much as terrestrial cable. The incessant cuts, which have become a major problem for the country’s nascent fibre optic networks, have occasioned operators and their customers huge losses in downtime and repairs, added Mr Joseph.

The OPGW network, which is part of the KPLC’s new supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, covers several routes from Kipevu in Mombasa to Nairobi; Nairobi to parts of the Mount Kenya Region; Nairobi to Eldoret and Eldoret through to, Muhoroni, Kisii and ultimately to Tororo in Uganda. All the routes will be ready for use by June 2010, while the key one to Tororo is expected to be ready by March 2010. Safaricom said it would be taking the routes as they are activated and was negotiating the possibility of riding on the same for “last mile connectivity” to its data customers. Already, the firm has lined up total expenditure of about USD10.2m for a fibre pair on all the routes.

The signing of the contract with KPLC is the culmination of a process that started with the national electricity utility inviting expressions of interest last year in April and thereafter publishing the tender in August of the same year. The short listing was completed in October 2009 and award was given to Safaricom on 1 December 2009. Negotiations have been ongoing since then.

Safaricom said it would review its relationship with existing carriers and select options that offer the firm the best redundancy options. Safaricom currently has existing contracts with cable providers KDN, Telkom Kenya and Jamii Telecoms.