Kenya Power is one of the few utilities companies in Africa that is using its infrastructure to build a fibre network in the East African country.

Currently, the company has over 1,300 Kilometres of fibre and it is leasing this capacity to telecom operators including Safaricom, Liquid Telecom and Wananchi Telecom.

This was revealed at the Fibre To The Home (FTTH) Council Conference 2015, hosted this week in Kigali, Rwanda.

According to Eric Wanjala, Head of Technical Services and Support Fiber Optic Business Unit at Kenya Power, this deployment has been easier than other forms of fibre installations and serves up cheaper business costs.

"If fibre can get into the houses plus power at the same time then what else do you need?" he asked.

Wanjala said that the various cables running in Africa are either power related or ICT related, but they are separate - so why not combine them?

He believes that this is a good way to spread broadband to remote schools and hospitals that need power for ICT projects.

"The only way you can get affordable services is when you reduce the high cost elements in the solution you are offering. When you put fibre in your utility network, when the power company goes paying for way leaves to come and put up the power, you are just waiting for those things to be paid up, then fibre will reside there cost free," Wanjala said.

"And you carry all that benefit to the end user," he explained.

At present the cost to install fibre on Kenya Power infrastructure is US$4,000 per kilometre compared to US$14,000 per kilometre for underground installation.

The underground laying of fibre has many challenges including securing local government approval and conducting civil works.

Wanjala said that the low cost of maintaining the fibre and visibility on fibre integrity makes this the best option for Africa.

He encouraged African governments to come up with policies that will compel power utility companies to pull fibre alongside their networks to reduce the cost of broadband and telecommunications.