UUNet Kenya`s application for an Internet backbone and gateway operator`s licence has finally been approved by the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK).
The East African Standard reports that in order to receive the licence, UUNet will have to cease operating as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and will have to transfer its existing clients to another company before the business is issued a permit.
"UUNet has given the CCK an undertaking to register a separate company and transfer its ISP business to this before we issue the licence," says CCK media liaison officer Christopher Wambua.
It had earlier been stated that the CCK had denied the operator`s licence UUNet had applied for, but the about turn came after the company agreed to cease its ISP operations.
UUNet will now have to pay the CCK a licence fee of some 15 million Kenyan shillings. Two other firms, Jamii Telecoms and Kenya Data Network (KDN) Limited, have already paid their fees and been granted licences to compete with JamboNet, run by the incumbent operator, Telkom Kenya.
The CCK announced last year that it would enforce strict rules while issuing Internet backbone and gateway operators` licences.
It warned ISPs that in order to apply for the international gateway operators` licence, they would have to apply as an entirely different entity or otherwise give up their ISP permits.
Wambua says that this new requirement is meant to protect the market against antitrust practices such as predatory pricing, uncompetitiveness and cross-subsidisation within the company.
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