NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 31 – Kenya’s mobile phone service provider Yu announced on Monday that it had attained countrywide network coverage, barely a year after it launched in the market.
Yu parent company Essar Telecom Kenya said it had activated 500 Base Transmitting Stations (BTS), describing it as the fastest GSM network rollout speed in Africa.
Essar Telecom Chief Executive Officer Srinivasa Iyengar said they rolled out more than 220 BTS sites in the month of August alone.
“This brings the Yu network’s active sites tally to more than 500 with a further 250 sites undergoing construction ahead of their network integration in the coming month,” he said.
Mr Iyengar expressed confidence that the firm’s target of two million subscribers by March next year is likely to be achieved much earlier.
“This makes Yu the fastest expanding network in Africa and probably the only operator to achieve nationwide coverage within the first year of operation,” he boasted.
“With the Yu network’s national coverage, subscribers’ will now be in a position to enjoy clear mobile calls and data services nationally with a seamless coverage on the Mombasa-Nairobi-Busia highway and beyond.”
Besides the network expansion, the network has also recently unveiled a variety of value added services geared at enhancing its subscribers’ experience. These include “Eneza” an electronic top-up service that is a completely paper-less transaction for loading airtime and “Dunda” – a distinctive caller ring back tone service. The network also has a convenient, unbundled data service, which is also very competitively priced in the market.
While commenting on the new developments, Essar Telecom Kenya’s Chief Commercial Officer Kunal Ramteke disclosed that the Yu network is experiencing a steady subscriber growth. “We are happy to report that the Yu network is experiencing very positive steady subscriber growth which is as per our market growth forecast” Mr Ramteke said. “As part of the overall corporate growth plans, we are actively moving to expand our network reach and enhance our products and services suite to better serve our subscribers,” he added.
