American Tower Corporation (ATC) has been given a go-ahead by Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) to buy 723 Telkom Kenya towers. According to a report published by the Business Daily, the deal, the two firms expected to be completed in the first half of this year will give the American company a presence in the country after making its entrance in East Africa through similar acquisitions in Uganda and Tanzania.
In a gazette notice published last Friday, Wang’ombe Kariuki. CAK director general said “The Competition Authority of Kenya authorizes the proposed acquisition…of 97.2 percent of Telkom Kenya Limited towers by American Tower Corporation (ATC) Kenya Operations Limited,”
In May, Telkom reported that they had reached a definitive agreement for ATC to acquire the 723 Telkom Kenya Towers for an undisclosed amount. Telkom Kenya’s Board Chair, Eddy Njoroge stated that TKL was delighted to have signed the agreement with ATC and looked forward to a close collaboration between the two companies
Telkom Kenya has also not disclosed the value of the transaction but the deal will probably help Telkom strengthen its operations in the country.
Telkom Kenya Chief Executive Aldo Mareuse has in a previous statement said that the sale will release capital for further investment in Telkom’s 4G network and a number of state-of-the-art IT platforms.
Last week, Telkom also unveiled a Kes. 150 million data center in Nairobi’s Upper Hill. The modernized open access facility located at Milimani Exchange is part of the telco’s network infrastructure expansion programme. According to, Mr. Aldo, this latest investment is to leverage on the rising demand for cloud-based services for Kenyan and regional businesses, at a customer‘s requirements.
Telkom has also signed an agreement with Loon, a subsidiary of Alphabet to pilot new 4G/LTE access network service in rural areas of Kenya. The idea of Project Loon is to provide basic internet connectivity to parts of Kenya that are not connected yet online by providing connections via balloons that float in the air. Google says the Loon balloons travel approximately 20 km above the Earth’s surface in the stratosphere.
