Two of the seven candidates for Kenya`s second national operator (SNO) licence have been dropped from consideration by the national telecommunications regulator.
Reuters reports that China Netcom Corporation and a consortium led by Israel`s Gilat Satellite Networks failed to qualify to advance to the next stage.
According to the report, among the criteria used to shortlist the bidders was evidence that the organisations currently manage at least 500 000 subscribers and have an annual turnover of at least $150 million.
The five bidders that have advanced to the next round of bidding include Germany`s Deutsche Telekom and Tata India, a consortium that includes Kenya`s Pegrume Group and TCIL India.
Also in the running are Sasktel, Canada`s state-owned operator, a Chinese consortium formed by China Network Corporation International and ZTE Corp, and Norway`s Telenor.
The winner of the SNO licence is expected to be announced in June, and should be operational within eight months.
Once it is up and running, the SNO will face off against the state-owned monopoly, Telkom Kenya, which has long been blamed for poor services, with many potential customers having been on Telkom Kenya`s connection waiting list for more than two years.
In much the same way as SA`s SNO process has seen a 19% stake provided to black empowerment operation, Nexus Connexion, so the Kenyan SNO will be required to give a Kenyan partner a 30% stake in the operation.
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