Safaricom targets 250 sites for 5G by year end

Kenya’s Safaricom has announced it wants to increase the number of 5G sites in the country to 250 by the end of the year. This follows the launch of the initial 15 sites in March, reports Business Daily.

In a statement, Safaricom’s Chief Finance Officer Dilip Pal said the 5G sites increase has been catered for in the capital expenditure plans for the telco.

“When we started, we had about 15 sites where we had the signal as we spoke. This is expected to go up to about 100-250 sites by the end of the year,” he said.

With the additional sites, more Safaricom subscribers in urban centres across nine towns will have access to superfast 5G services, the company says.

The expansion will equip more individuals and enterprises with 5G for use at work, home and when on the move, helping Safaricom to tap into the burgeoning mobile internet use in the country.

Safaricom and its closest rival Airtel Kenya are in the race for the superfast internet, with priority given to urban centres.

Airtel Kenya recently upgraded 600 network sites to meet 5G mobile internet services capabilities in readiness to roll out the superfast services in Nairobi, Mombasa and Malindi.