Orange rolls out Wi-Fi in Bungoma County

NAIROBI, KENYA: Integrated telecommunications solutions provider Orange has rolled out Wi-Fi in Bungoma County.

The Wi-Fi solution, which is in its first phase, covers the county headquarters in Bungoma and the town. The second phase of the project, which will be launched at a later date, will cover the entire sub-counties and the adjacent areas.

Company CEO Vincent Lobry says that the provision of wireless Internet in Bungoma County is part of the company’s strategy of spreading its data solutions offering into the counties and supporting its mandate to provide broadband access for all citizens. “The solution will also aid in opening up opportunities for business in these areas, as well as support the county governments to improve on their service offering through integrated ICT solutions,” he adds.

“We are committed to ensuring that most of our county residents enjoy free Internet in partnership with Telkom Kenya. We will cascade to the wards and introduce the hotspots after we are through with the sub-counties,” says Kenneth Lusaka, the Bungoma County Governor.

The roll-out of Wi-Fi in Bungoma comes a short while after the publication of misinformed media reports on Orange as having terminated its partnership with the Nakuru County Government on the provision of free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi project was initiated in April 2014 by INFONET, a Kenyan based innovations group working towards improving interactions between governments, the civil society and citizens through ICT.

“INFONET approached Orange to provide a redundant link at a reasonable cost that was to run alongside one provided by another ISP that INFONET had also engaged. We installed the link as instructed by INFONET; however, we never got to complete the integration to the access network, as INFONET denied our technical team access to their equipment,” says the CEO. “The Company seeks to clarify that the link it had provided was never utilised neither was any payment made to Orange in relation to the Wi-Fi project,” he adds, reiterating Orange’s commitment to delivering quality services while providing simplicity through customer experience and maintaining its value proposition to the customer.