In 2014, Liquid Telecom announced plans to connect the 47 counties in Kenya with fiber optic at a cost of Kshs. 4.4 Billion. The company further unveiled an ambitious plan seeking to invest Kshs. 8.5 Billion into establishing a fiber optic network along the Lamu Port-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (Lapsset) routes. Last month, Liquid announced they had managed to connect 39 of the 47 counties with the completion of the Garissa Metro fiber. Other counties also connected include Kisumu, Nakuru, Garissa, Mombasa, Kilifi and a mini metro in Eldoret, and will next year complete metro networks in Meru, Nyeri, Machakos, and Muranga, upgrade its fibre network in Kisii, and extend its Nakuru network to Naivasha.
Liquid Telecom has now announced the completion of the Nairobi Metro Fiber. Liquid also launched its retail brand, Hai which will offer fibre connections to homes and small businesses. Hai will also see the creation of free WiFi hotspots to allow more users to access the internet with Kshs. 100 Million earmarked for this project. There are currently 200 existing free hotspots in Nairobi,Nakuru, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kajiado, and Nyeri.
This is not the first time that a company has introduced free WiFi hotspots in Kenya. Wazi WiFi was an initiative of Wananchi Group seeking to allow users to access the internet on a single sign-on. Wazi had deployed over 400 Wi-Fi access points with 200 in Nairobi but its no longer existent. Pricing of Wazi Wi-Fi was at Kshs. 50 a day or 500 a month per device. The Liquid Telecom hotspots product was introduced in Nakuru and Kisumu, a project spearheaded by Director Digital in the Presidency, Dennis Itumbi.
