NAIROBI: Kenya's government has given telecom operators in the country an extension to bid on a 4G spectrum license, the ministry of communications said. The deadline, which was set to pass on Wednesday, gives the companies an extra two weeks to respond, despite no initial interest by local telecom firms. The new deadline has been set for September 27. Previously, 3G licenses were awarded to each operator in the country, but the new 4G license is to be tightly controlled by the government, developers and one mobile operator, who must have at least 20 percent local ownership. This new requirement has made Airtel, Essar's Yu out of the bidding and only Safaricom and Telkom Kenya are able to bid, but according to the information ministry, neither of the two operators appear interested in the new license. “No consortium had applied,” said Information PS Bitange Ndemo. “We needed to have given them more time to form the consortia and that's the reason we have extended the bidding period by two weeks.” BM
