In Kenya, 3G services are coming to a mobile phone near you. At least in the third quarter this year for Telkom Kenya users, the France Telecom unit said in a press statement. The move hopes to increase profits lost by the dropage of mobile rates in the country. Telkom Kenya's CEO Mickael Ghossein said that the move will help buttress the company's stalled profit earnings and give users the ability to browse the Internet from their hand devices. “We want to have [a] very good network and very good customer service because if you fail you kill business,” Ghossein said in an interview with Bloomberg news agency. The announcement comes as the 49 percent state-owned telecom operator continues to upgrade its networks to allow them to handle fourth-generation technology. This, Ghossein says is aimed so “in the future, if we have to launch 4G, we don't have to buy another equipment.” Data is becoming the leading source for reliable revenue after the country's regulator in August halved the rates companies can charge for interconnection fees, which led to months of price wars between telecom operators. According to Ghossein, Telkom Kenya has lost as much as two billion shillings, or $22 million, in voice revenue. BM
