Kenya's fourth mobile phone service starts operations

NAIROBI, Nov. 26 (Chinese media) -- Kenya's fourth mobile phone operator, Econet

Wireless Kenya (EWK), will start its service in Kenya late Wednesday after

braving five years of legal and financial setbacks.

EWK, a unit of India's Essar Communications Holdings, said it planned to

spend 500 million U.S. dollars in Kenya over the next two years.

The Wednesday's night launch follows last week's unveiling of its brand

name Yu, and an initiative that allows subscribers with rivals Safaricom, Telkom

Kenya and Zain to retain their old numbers once they switch to its network.

Its launch now brings the number of mobile telecommunication operators to

four. Although it had been expected that the operator would launch with low

tariffs compared to what other operators are offering.

Econet Marketing Director Anna Othoro said Yu would not engage in a price

war. "We are not going to launch with tariffs that we cannot sustain in the long

term as a business," said Othoro.

The company will compete with Safaricom, which has 12 million customers or

81 percent of the Kenyan market, Zain and Telkom Kenya, a venture between the

government and France Telecom' s Orange unit.

Yu will be targeting youth in the 18 to 35 ages bracket, a segment it hopes

to capture with a multimedia service to be launched soon.

The company said the current mobile penetration levels of 33 percent show

there is potential for the new entrants. Its services will first be rolled out

in Nairobi followed by Mombasa, but it expects to go countrywide by March next

year.

The firm has entered into a site-sharing agreement with its competitors. It

is also partnering with 150 mobile operators globally for its roaming services.

Econet was first licensed in 2003 but was unable to roll out its operations

due to protracted court battles involving its ownership.

These battles ended two years ago after Econet agreed to withdraw the cases

it had filed against CCK and former Information minister Raphael Tuju.

Econet's entry into the telecoms market is expected to add competitive

pressure in an industry that has been dominated by two players for nearly 10

years.