Safaricom Ltd has paid USD 27 Million as fees to renew its communications licence for another 10 years after a tussle with politicians and the authority over issues the Authority said were around quality standards.
Safaricom Ltd, owned by Vodacom PLC and the Kenyan government is the largest mobile network operator in Kenya with a further impact due to its M-PESA money transfer services. It’s licence renewal was said to have been politicised while others claimed the firm was not offering quality services to its subscribers. Others said the fights over the renewal were due to its Sh23 billion profits for its financial year ending March 2014.
Just like other mobile operators, Safaricom is tasked to comply with Communications Authority of Kenya regulations. CAK cited poor network coverage, call drops and call blocks and low voice or speech quality and a 39 minute unit than a 60 minute unit. Safaricom LTD licence renewal however means the allegations were not true or have been fixed. The telco is now expected to movw with energy with its variuos innovative products such as planned NFC Sim cards, public transport payments and maybe in future bitcoins. Yesterday, the firm said it will open its M-PESA API to develoepers in April 2015.
CAK was established in 1998 under an Act of Parliament, Kenya Information and Communication Act and has regulatory and supervisory role in ICT to include broadcasting, multimedia, telecommunications, postal services and electronic commerce. CAK is independent of control by government, political or commercial interests and is responsible for facilitating the transformation of lives through progressive regulation of the Information and Communication Technology Sector.