Telkom Kenya added several new areas to its local 4G network and now covers 30 sites, including Athi River, Syokimau, Kitengela, Thika, Kiambu town, Kikuyu town, Kiserian and Ngong.

Aldo Mareuse, CEO at Telkom Kenya said the expansion forms part of the company's long-term network modernisation programme, which includes improvements to its 3G coverage – for example at academic sites like the University of Eastern Africa in Baraton.

The targeted 4G expansion follows Telkom's agreement to dispose up to 723 of its towers to the American Tower Company.

In agreeing to sell its towers, Telkom, 60% of which is owned by Helios Investment Partners and 40% by the Kenyan government, is following a growing trend across the continent whereby telecoms firms shed their tower infrastructure to dedicated management firms.

"The sale will also release capital for further investment in Telkom's network and a number of state-of-the-art IT platforms, all aimed at further enhancing services to customers as they demand higher quality and speed from their mobile data providers," read a statement issued by the company.

Telkom Kenya will continue to leverage its long-term modernisation programme, which has been in operation for the past two years, in order to "optimise the network and build efficiency".

Said Mareuse, "The network optimisation track reiterates our commitment to focus on the consistent delivery of quality service and experience. We initiated a switch-over in transmission to a fully-fledged Internet Protocol platform, that has led to more efficiencies and continues to open up our network to easier scalability and integration."

He added that the programme will enter a second phase in July during which it will focus on strengthening its entire fibre network and "create further redundancies, leading to increased availability and transmission quality and a decrease in network downtime."

"Our long term goal is to build a holistic network that provides for higher speeds, capacity, quality and reliability, as we also seek to further the densification of our network."