Telecommunications

Overview

The telecoms industry in Kenya, just like the rest of the world, is going through profound changes. In the past decade, technological advancement and regulatory restructuring have transformed the industry. Markets that were formerly distinct, discrete and vertical have coalesced across their old boundaries with a massive investment of capital - much of it originating from private sector participants.

The result is new markets, new players, and new challenges. Market liberalisation efforts have also picked up ensuing the successful partial privatisation of Telkom Kenya Ltd (December 2007), divestment of GoK’s 25% stake in Safaricom Ltd through a public listing (May 2008), and the launch of fourth mobile operator Econet Wireless Kenya (November 2008). This has resulted into some of the world’s best known telecommunication providers – Vodafone, France Telecoms and Essar Communications through their investments in Safaricom Limited, Telkom Kenya Limited and Econet Limited respectively - being major players in the Kenyan market.

PwC and the telecommunications sector in Kenya

The PwC Global Telecommunication practice provides a complete range of professional services to companies and individuals in communications industries across the globe, tailored to specific local requirements. Our specialists serve as tax advisers, consultants, financial advisers and auditors to wireless and fixed line service providers, competitive access providers, Internet service providers, global satellite consortia and telecom equipment suppliers.

Drawing on our accumulated experience, we have anticipated and met the challenges of global regulatory change, and have helped our clients deal with the impact of industry convergence and e-business. We continue to add measurable value to our client relationships through our leadership and innovation, which are evident in our evolving services and products.

Our dedicated industry experts, extensive alliance partnerships, proven methodologies and centres of excellence are geared towards understanding today's critical business issues and addressing emerging challenges to leverage tomorrow's vast opportunities.

PwC is the world's most experienced telecoms auditor. Our dedicated Telecommunications Practice brings to our clients a depth of resources, range of expertise and scope of proven solutions.

Our telecoms clients account for approximately 40% of revenues in the industry worldwide. While size and market share do not solely define leadership, these factors reflect the success we have had in serving our clients of all sizes in the telecommunications industry. We audit more major telecoms companies than any other firm worldwide.

PwC has been at the heart of telecommunications sector transformation in Kenya and the firm has worked over the years on landmark transactions in the telecommunications sector. For example, we are auditors and tax advisers to the two of the leading mobile operators in the country, we were financial advisers to France Telecom (Orange Brand) in its successful acquisition of a 51% stake in Telkom Kenya Ltd and have been heavily involved in structuring the operations and shareholding in the two of the proposed Submarine Cables among many other flagship assignments in the Telecommunications sector in Kenya.

Challenges facing the sector

Current challenges facing the Telecommunications Sector in Kenya include:

Licensing of the Secondary National Operator process has been rather slow and lethargic and may have been overtaken by events such as the issuing of unified licences
Increasing competition and regulatory requirements
Scope for m-commerce application largely unexplored
Regulation and enactment of an enabling framework for provision of financial intermediary services such as mobile banking
Managing growth and the impending challenges on quality of service, average revenue per user, operator capacity.

Ongoing infrastructural developments by operators have largely been focused on network expansion for increased nationwide coverage.

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