Full Internet services were
established in 1995 by private companies despite KPTC's objections printed in national
newspapers. KPTC then proceeded to inhibit the liberalisation of the market for third
parties by imposing the acquisition of a licence and the payment of a provisional licence
fee for five years of Kshs 500,000 payable in advance, and an operating fee for one year,
at 1% of the gross turn-over, or as an interim measure, at Kshs 250,000. Moreover, ISPs
must be 70% locally owned.
Despite all the obstacles, Kenya
now has the largest Internet community in sub-Saharan Africa, with some estimates as high
as 25,000 users. KPTC has rolled out a nation-wide 2 MB Internet backbone with a hub in
Nairobi and extending to Nyeri, Mombassa, Nakuru and Kisumu.
Currently, 15 ISPs are operating in
Kenya, with most of them offering leased lines services and some of them having points of
presence in secondary cities. The following are the major ISPs:
Africa Online Kenya is a subsidiary of Africa Online which is the premier provider of
Internet communication services throughout Africa, bringing Internet users a level of
technical expertise and breadth of service unequalled by any other on the continent.
Founded in 1994 by three Kenyans studying at M.I.T. and Harvard University in the United
States, Africa Online has evolved its charter to provide leading-edge Internet services to
thousands of successful individuals and businesses. Africa Online is headquartered in
Nairobi, Kenya, with operations in Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania
and Zimbabwe. Africa Online Kenya is the largest ISP in Kenya with
approximately 3,000 users, and it has recently announced that it will be able to provide
users with 768 Kbps links. The company products and services include web site development
and hosting, e-mail services and fax services, Internet connection and intranet set-up. Africa
Online has recently introduced Africa Online Roaming, a new service designed to
offer the easiest, most inexpensive way to access your e-mail, intranet and the Internet
while travelling.
Form-Net Africa Limited has expanded rapidly into a dynamic group of companies including Cyber
Cafe Ltd. and WebLink Services Ltd. with a point of presence in
the coastal town of Mombassa and Kisumu. Weblink Services Ltd. is the author of www.kenyaweb.com, which is
viewed by many as Kenya's Official Internet Resource. Kenyaonline is also
a direct Internet access service offered by Form-net Africa Limited. Form-Net has the
following fee schedule for its services (in Kenya Shillings):
Service |
Description |
Set up |
Monthy |
Setup |
Installation and Basic Training |
1,150 |
n/a |
Basic |
Local Services, Paging, Games, File Libraries,
Entertainment Guides, Classifieds, Real Estate, Reuters, Online Shopping, and Online
CHAT! |
n/a |
1,150 |
Standard |
24 hour E-mail / 180 hours FREE Off-Peak Internet
|
n/a |
3,000 |
Economical |
24 hour E-mail / 360 hours Peak Internet |
n/a |
4,300 |
Leisure |
24 hour E-mail / 500 hours Leisure Internet
|
n/a |
6,000 |
Corporate |
Unlimited usage |
n/a |
8,050 |
Net2000 is
the result of a concerted effort by a group of Kenyan companies to deliver a nation-wide
Internet service to Kenya. This has resulted in the construction of a robust and
cost-effective infrastructure for the Internet community in Kenya. The backers of Net
2000 include prominent Kenyan companies such as Africaland Computers,
Kingsway Group, and Spin Knit Group. The company offers
dial-up and direct Internet connectivity via nation-wide local number access points in
Nairobi, Mombassa, Eldoret, Nakuru and Kisumu. Its services also include e-mail and fax
services, Telnet, web development and hosting.
NairobiNet is
a wholly Kenyan-owned company, which started its operations in late 1996. The company's
products and services include web site development and hosting, e-mail services and
Internet connection.
Inter-connect
was founded in 1996 with offices in Nairobi and Nakuru, and the company plans to
move to all other major towns in Kenya. Its services include e-mail and fax, WWW and
Telnet, and computer system design.
Insight Technologies Ltd. (ITL) is an information
technology firm committed to supporting and strengthening information systems for
individuals and organisations. The company has:
- a fully fledged Training Centre;
- a well equipped technical workshop
with qualified and experienced personnel;
- a department solely committed to
software development.;
- a growing hardware and software
sales department. Internet Communication Services.
Swift Global Kenya Limited is one of the first licensed "Telecommunications Service
Providers" (TSP) in Kenya. It has offices in Nairobi, Kampala and Mombassa, and plans
to open new ones in Dar Es Salaam, Nakuru, Kisumu and Eldoret. Swift Global has
traditionally focused on data communications and networking among the business community.
More recently, it has begun to accommodate the dramatic increase in demand from domestic
and home users for Internet and e-mail services. The company currently provides its
existing customers with a variety of customised LAN and WAN networking services, FAX
services, e-mail services, Web services, FTP and Telnet services. It also provides both
dedicated and dial-up access and has an increasing number of larger organisations who are
making use of its infrastructure for virtual networks (or Intranet) services.
The African
Regional Centre for Computing (ARCC) is a registered, non-governmental
organisation (NGO) whose main objective is to promote the development and use of computing
and communication technologies in Africa, with an initial focus on Kenya. ARCC is
sponsored by KARI-ODA (Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute -Overseas Development
Agency). ARCC's activities include high-level computer training, research and consultancy,
promotion of computer literacy, facilitation of collaborative computing education and
research, and fostering of links and communications between the computing industry,
academia, NGOs, policy-making institutions and other key sectors. Network services include
e-mail (Internet, Fidonet, UUCP), file transfers, e-mail-to-fax server, electronic
conferences, broadcasts/advertisements and bulletin boards (BBSs).
MIPS Netcafe is an integrated Information Technology provider which offers not only
e-mail and web surfing but also a complete suite of state-of-the-art office solutions.
These include first-class desktop publishing complete with photo-quality color printing
for all corporate document needs, photocopying, document scanning and faxing.
Safari-Surf Web Services Ltd founded in 1997, is one of the fully fledged "Web Presence
Providers" in the region, providing professional web-based solutions for
individuals as well as corporate organisations. They develop and author advanced web sites
and also provide web hosting facilities on their own dedicated servers based in the UK.
These servers are connected on a direct T3 Ethernet connection to the main Internet
backbone of Europe.
The East African Internet
Association (EAIA) is a not-for-profit group formed in April 1995. It seeks to
promote and expand co-operative electronic communications and inter-networking in the East
African region. Its members include the majority of electronic service providers, serving
at least 3,000 users, in the following countries: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and
Uganda. Partner networks abroad are also members, as are a number of interested
individuals. The management committee of EAIA can be reached at eaia-manage@sasa.unon.org.
Internet host sites: 949
(2000)
Internet users
(1999):
- Total: 15,000
- Subscribers per 10,000
inhabitants: 5.16
Internet Users (1999):
- Total: 35,000
- Users per 10,000 inhabitants: 11.84
Internet subscribers by
categories:
- Commercial:
- Academic:
- Research:
- NGO/UN/International:
- Government:
- Others:
Internet bandwidth (Kbps):
2,000
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