The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has invited the public to give their views on the proposed market structure and guidelines for a unified license regime, set to take effect on July 1.

The new licensing framework will allow the provision of multiple services under a single license. The migration to a unified licensing framework will not affect existing businesses, though they will be required to make necessary adjustments.

In a newspaper advertisement, CCK Director-General John Waweru invited the public to forward comments. The public comments process ends on June 30.

The CCK announced its plan to adopt a unified licensing regime in September 2004, after Telkom Kenya's five-year monopoly on the provision of certain services expired.

In Kenya, a new ICT investor is expected to get a host of licenses from various departments and ministries, ranging from city halls to the CCK. However, the new licensing regime lessens the workload because from CCK, an organization will get a single license for several services. In the past, CCK had separate licenses for GSM, fixed line, wireless, international gateway operations, broadcasting and other services.

Because convergence in the various ICT delivery technologies offered to the end-user has blurred the existing license boundaries, Waweru says service delivery will improve.

Regarding the effect of the new framework on competition, Waweru says that the country's proposed ICT bill provides sufficient safeguards against anticompetitive market behavior, including discriminatory pricing.

Before making the final proposition on the unified licensing framework, the CCK said it consulted widely with ICT stakeholders and cross-referenced with other countries, and that the transition is consistent with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) policies on licensing.

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