The country ICT and e-commerce infrastructure of which we are to consider today is an amazing land of wonderful nature with amazing fauna and unique flora, Kenya, located in East Africa. This amazing country, that is lying along the Indian Ocean, is bordered by, at the equator, Ethiopia (north), Somalia (northeast), Tanzania (south), Uganda plus Lake Victoria (west), and Sudan (northwest). Kenya, named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and the second among the highest mountain peaks of Africa, has numerous wildlife reserves, containing thousands of animal species.

Country’s economy is market-based, with a few state-owned infrastructure enterprises, which currently maintains a liberalized external trade system. The country is generally perceived as Eastern and Central Africa's hub for Financial, Communication and Transportation services.

Kenya’s telecom market is currently in the process of development. However, 2005 was a year of uncertainty for the Kenyan telecommunications market, but the path of liberalization taken by the country’s regulator seems irreversible.

The planned licensing of a Second National Operator (SNO) was aborted in 2004, the privatization of a majority stake in Telkom postponed to 2006, and the validity of the country’s third mobile licence is still uncertain.

The country’s incumbent operator, Telkom Kenya, is renovating its infrastructure and services under the Orange brand with fresh capital from its new majority shareholder, France Telecom, and it has also re-entered the mobile market. Telkom Kenya’s monopoly in Internet backbone and international bandwidth services ended in 2004 and several new data carriers have been licensed.

A simplified and converged licensing regime introduced in 2008 has lowered the barriers to market entry and increased competition by allowing operators to offer any kind of service in a technology- and service-neutral regulatory framework. So, there are 72 licensed ISPs, of which about half are operational, are successfully operating the market.

The most popular Internet connection services offered by the national operators are represented by ADSL and wireless broadband technologies. Besides, VoIP Internet telephony has been liberalized, promising to bring the long-awaited reduction of international and long-distance calling rates. As for WiMAX technology, it’s being deployed at present in a move to deliver converged voice, data and video/broadband TV (triple-play) services.

Thus far, at present, amid the operators that has been entering national telecom market, there are Kenya Data Networks (KDN), AccessKenya and Jamii Telecom. Theses ISPs are deploying national and metropolitan fibre backbones and wireless access networks to take the new bandwidth and services to population centers across the country.

The other ISPs operating on the national telco market are the followings (according to www.ostamyy.com):

• Blue – is the wireless broadband service offered by Broadband Access. The company is licensed by the Communications Commission of Kenya as a Public Data Network Operator, Broadband Access manages the blue suite of services. Employing a point-multipoint architecture, blue delivers connectivity using Motorola’s Canopy products as type-approved by the Communications Commission of Kenya.
• Ericonet – is young dynamic IT based company that represents the leading Wireless Internet Service Provider in East Africa. The company is offering secure easy to use global broadband internet access through the provision of 'hotspots" at airports, hotels, conference centres that allow our customers to work freely and at their convenience.
• KDN - is a public data network operators in Kenya established early in 2003 by the Sameer Group, a major Kenyan conglomerate, in the wake of the liberalization of the Kenyan telecommunications market.
• Skyweb - Internet Service Provider
• ISP Kenya - is one of the leading corporate connectivity providers in Kenya, established at the end of 1999. It considers being one of the most innovative Internet Service Providers in Africa.
• TESPOK (Telecommunications Service Providers Association of Kenya) - is a professional, non-profit organization representing the interests of ISPs and other telecommunication service providers in Kenya.
• IS (Internet Solutions) – is the South Africa’s leading ISP

It’s important to note, that national ICT market is undergoing a revolution following the arrival of three fibre optic international submarine cables in Kenya in 2009 and 2010 (Seacom, TEAMS and EASSy), that put an end to its dependency on limited and expensive satellite bandwidth.

Moreover, bandwidth prices had already fallen significantly following the liberalization of international gateway and national backbone network provision, enabling cheaper tariffs for telephone calls as well as for broadband Internet services.

Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Kenya is .ke, administered by KeNIC.

Registration is available under some second-level labels, but it’s necessary to provide with supporting documents. It’s also possible to be registered under third level beneath second level domain, like followings:

• .co.ke - for Companies
• .or.ke - for Not-for-Profit-Making Organisations or NGO's
• .ne.ke - for Network Devices
• .go.ke - for Government Entities. Requires Supporting Documents
• .ac.ke - for Institutions of Higher Education. Requires Supporting Documents
• .sc.ke - for Lower and Middle Institutes of Learning. Requires Supporting Documents
• .me.ke - for Personal names
• .mobi.ke - for Mobile content
• .info.ke - for Information

As for the volume of Internet users in the country, the penetration has reached 10%, with almost 4 million people subscribed. That lets Kenya occupy the 7th position amid Africa top 10 Internet countries. Thus, the surge in Internet usage has made about 1.900% for the decade, from 0.7% broadband penetration level seen in 2000, owing to the rapid deployment of Internet and related services in the country.

Well, let’s now take a look at the current conditions of the e-commerce sector.

It’s obvious that the launch of three fibre optic cables in Kenya and the consequent improved and faster Internet connection along with drop in prices for Internet services has not only raised the volume of Internet users, but also prompted the interest of growing amount of businesses in e-commerce sector.

However, government encourages e-commerce development in the country, by launching specific incentives. One of the laws supporting e-commerce was created in 2008 and tittled the ICT Bill. The law aims to promote electronic trade within Kenya and between Kenya and other trading partners and also provide a condusive legal environment for all players to do business and transact. The Bill also definitely encourages e-commerce services and protects the privacy of the public, interests of consumers and clients from potential misuse.

Thus far such advanced services like e-commerce, e-learning and e-government are now rapidly deploying and evolving. However, e-commerce sector is still immature in Kenya as a lot of is still to be developed and improved. So, e-business in Kenya is still on the lowest stage of the development. Nevertheless, the success in Internet and related services field looks promising for the deployment of e-commerce market.