By Fredrick Obura
Kenya’s growing construction industry is turning out to be a major target for Internet infrastructure providers with top cable firms, Soliton Telmec and the Access Kenya expressing interest in the industry.
The two are looking at the sector as next frontier in growing their businesses and helping the country achieve part of its national blue print Vision 2030.
The 2011 data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics indicates a growth in the construction sector by 10.7 per cent compared to the dismal performance of 0.3 per cent in the same period in 2010.
Increased lending to the private sector for real estate development boosted activity in the construction sector in the first quarter of 2011.
Readily available
“The Kenya Vision 2030 puts ICT at the core of its operations, Internet is an enabler which if made easily available to homes can aid in research,” says Abdirahman Sheikh, group chief executive officer Soliton Telmec.
“We have embarked on working with developers to open up Internet access to both high and low income areas,” he says. “We are working with developers in low income areas such as Eastland in a joint strategy that would see new buildings piped with the fibre optic cables,” he says
In a concept referred to as Fibre to the Homes (FTTH), the firm is working with the National Housing Corporation, Ministry of Housing, and the National Social Security Fund to promote an in-building shared optical network infrastructure.
The infrastructure is the practice of providing unrestricted access to the installed infrastructure for transmission of voice, data, and video, cloud services to end users within a commercial building, apartment or other multi-dwelling units.
The technology enhances user experience by allowing wide selection of services from multiple Internet Service Providers. “When one is dissatisfied with an Internet Service provider, he can easily move to alternative service without incurring cabling cost,” he says. “It virtually eliminates the cost associated with migrating from one operator to another.”
The new strategy (in-building shared optical Network infrastructure) is seen by industry analyst as a way to help reduce the cost of Internet that has remained high despite Kenya being connected to more than three international fibre optic cables.
“Most Internet service providers are involved in competition in laying their own cables, in a building for instance you may find the providers opting for their own cables to offer clients Internet services,” said Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Communication.
Internet cost
“If they can find a way of sharing infrastructure, the cost of Internet could drastically come down,” he said.
The new technology by the two companies has the opportunity to allow open access and cross usage of cables by different providers.
Only a couple of weeks ago, AccessKenya launched a Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) solution targeting property developers.
Access Kenya’s FTTP solution is similar to Soliton’s in-building shared optical network infrastructure. “The only difference is that users have limited options to use other service providers apart from Access Kenya’s Internet.”
The FTTP Solution, dubbed “Intelligent Properties” is aimed at supporting Building Management Systems (BMS) to enhance efficiency in the management of essential services in both residential and commercial buildings.
AccessKenya Group Chief Executive officer Jonathan Somen said the company is keen on exploiting the potential of technology aided development such as BMS, even as it diversifies its product portfolio. “We believe that potential of Fibre to the Premise in building and construction industry is enormous, drawing from the fast-changing needs and the subsequent developments in our respective living and working environment,” said Somen.
Statistics from the Communication Commission of Kenya indicate that fibre subscriptions grew by 3.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2012 to reach 38, 966. This was, compared to the same period last year, a 118.3 per cent growth.
