Principal Secretary, Ministry of Energy & Petroleum, State Department of Energy Alex Wachira (left) converses with Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) Chairman Abdi Duale during KETRACO fibre and tower leasing stakeholder breakfast meeting at Boma Hotel, Nairobi on September 26, 2023. PHOTO | LUCY WANJIRU | NMG
The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) is offering Internet firms a lease of its expanding fibre optic network for $35 (Sh5,173) per kilometre for each core of fibre to provide Internet connectivity.
The State-owned firm said its transmission lines incorporate Optical Ground Wire for operations.
Ketraco was granted a Network Facility Provider Tier 2 (NFPT2) License by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) in 2014 enabling it to lease out fibre to licensed application and content service providers.
The company said the fibre cables have 48 cores out of which it is using six, leaving 42 available for letting to Internet service providers.
Ketraco uses the fibre for gathering information about its power systems, the units of power being carried, meter readings at interchange points, the status of equipment, and alarms and voice communications between its power dispatchers and line maintenance crews.
It said some 3,537 kilometres of fibre cable are available for leasing for $35 per kilometre per core along prime routes and $25 (Sh3,695) along non-prime routes.
Ketraco is also offering firms colocation services at its substations for $250 (Sh36,950) per month. It said some of its existing fibre customers include Safaricom, BCS, Airtel, KENET, Liquid Tele, Wananchi, JTL, and Icon Fiber.
A colocation is a data centre in which a firm can rent space for servers and other computing hardware.
“With the fiber optic installation being overhead, reliability and security is guaranteed as opposed to those installed underground,” said Dr Njogu Kimando, general manager in charge of strategy, research, and compliance at Ketraco on Wednesday.
