Kenya is trying something radically different in terms of business models relating to infrastructure. Instead of selling spectrum to operators, which there’s an extreme shortage of, the government may just built out an LTE network on their own and then sell access to said network to various operators. “We have close to 19 operators lined up for this kind of frequency which can only accommodate three operators if we use the old model to allocate it,” said Bitange Ndemo, Information Secretary of Kenya.
When you think about it, this is absolutely brilliant. Operators today typically spend an insane amount of money on advertising, buying handsets in bulk that they then either customize with their own software or leave completely unmodified, but either way end up being resold to you, and of course their wireless network. What if the government was responsible for the network, and all operators had to do was compete over pricing of handsets, advertising, and customer service. Things that actually matter.
If this sounds familiar to you, then you’ve obviously heard of Clearwire and LightSquared. The former is a WiMAX network that Sprint holds a majority stake in, and they resell their network resources to multiple companies, including Time Warner Cable. Now yes, consumers are often ignorant enough to not know that the same network is being branded differently by several players, but who cares? LightSquared is the same idea, but instead of creating their own consumer service, like Clearwire does, they will strictly be business to business. With the government responsible for wireless service, it’ll be in their best interest to provide the best network that money has to offer, unlike operators who have to maintain a tight balance sheet and will often go with components from less reliable vendors just to save a penny here and there. Many Americans are screaming “socialism” right now, but again, who cares? What if, just for once, the government can actually do something useful rather than be an enemy we shake our fist at while complaining about high taxes?