Kenya’s leading telecommunication companies Safaricom and Airtel respectively have been granted conditional approval to acquire the assets of Essar Telecom Kenya operating under the brand yuMobile.
This comes after a delay by the regulator to respond to the telecoms application having Safaricom hint on withdrawal from the deal. The commission however denied the accusation by Safaricom saying the response was in good time and in the right time frame.
The two contenders will be required to pay 5.4 million fee for Yu’s license. This will be followed by a six months transition period provided by Communications Commission of Kenya that will allow transfer of the services from Essar Telecom Limited to the two applicants.
The deal also comes with a condition cover such as infrastructure sharing and cooperation between the companies on customer money transfer services and SIM registrations. The buyers should ensure that all Yu subscribers retain their numbers and related contracts in the transition period and Airtel submits the proposed service level agreement for subscribers acquired from Essar Telecom. This will have the companies acquire final approval on the ownership.
Safaricom on the other hand wants to acquire Yu’s infrastructure such as base stations to help improve quality of its network.
“The Commission would want to uphold the principle of infrastructure sharing and in this regard, Safaricom has been requested to provide its proposed framework for sharing its overall passive and active infrastructure with other licensed operators and service providers,” CCK Director General Francis Wangusi said.