ACCESSKENYA IN DRIVE TO CONNECT COUNTY GOVERNMENTS

Kenya - Leading Corporate Internet and IT Solutions Provider AccessKenya Group has announced plans to aggressively target the 47 county governments for connection on its fibre and wireless networks and extend other ICT solutions to the counties, within the remainder of 2013 and in 2014.

“AccessKenya Group is committed to delivering localized ICT solutions to every county and elevating the ICT standards of Kenya,” comments Group Managing Director Jonathan Somen.

He says the firm is in the process of actualizing its national expansion strategy and has already rolled out its network in Kakamega, Kericho, Machakos and Meru. "As AccessKenya, we appreciate that each county has unique ICT needs so we plan to work with county governments and ICT managers to tailor make solutions for the counties. We further aim to expand our national coverage directly with our own network during 2013 and into the future so as to take advantage of this opportunity and be the preferred one-stop ICT solutions provider,” notes Somen.

Recently, AccessKenya won the Machakos County business, an enviable triumph given the county’s prominence for hosting Konza Technopolis. "As we seek to partner with county governments, we are particularly enthusiastic about Machakos as it brings us very close to where Konza City is being built. It also allows us to deploy our expansive expertise to this strategic County Government as it crafts its own ICT policies and lays foundation towards actualizing Vision 2030.”

According to Mr. Somen, the company plans to invest over Ksh. 35 million towards the national expansion roll out this year, a strategic move necessitated by growing demand for broadband services across the counties according to the company’s feasibility assessment done over the past year. So far the fi

rm has connected 15 towns outside of Nairobi including Kisumu, Eldoret, Kakamega, Kericho, Nanyuki, Nyeri, Thika, Nakuru, Naivasha, Kiambu, AthiRiver, Ngong, Kilifi, Elburgon and Mazeras.

Ten counties are planned for connection before the end of the year, and already the firm is digging fibre network extensions on the North Coast of Mombasa and AthiRiver to add up to over 400km of fibre network in Nairobi and Mombasa. Among towns listed for connection before year end include Kitale, Kisii Kiambu and Embu.

Somen was quick to emphasize that clients located out of Nairobi and Mombasa are getting excellent broadband experiences exactly the same as those in the major cities. Over the past three years, Access Kenya has focused primarily on reliable service as being the key focus of the company as that is what customers rank as their number one requirement.  In addition, a second focus on excellent 24-hour customer service has been invested in, ensuring that in the event that a customer does have a problem, they will receive prompt, accurate and efficient service and resolution.

AccessKenya expansion plans come in the wake of sustained efforts from competing Telco’s to get a share of the growing data market. "We plan to expand our territory nationally and protect what we already have. Part of our efforts is constantly upgrading our connectivity including our recent meshing of our core fibre network infrastructure to give alternative paths for traffic. This now means that in our network, a customer will only have a service issue if we have 3 fibre cuts on our network and this benefits all 550 fibre connected buildings on our infrastructure,” confirms Somen.