With land lines, one is billed for each call made, and an additional charge is added for long distance. One can make international calls with a touch-tone phone; however, with any other kind of phone, one must call the operator. In both cities and villages, pay phones are usually strategically located, but one must always expect routine problems with calls going through. When making a collect call, one has to go through the operator. The operator will ask where you are calling from, and the number and person you wish to talk to. If the person called does not want to pay, the operator disconnects the call.
The use of cell phones both in cities and in the country is rapidly increasing in Kenya. Although the rates are expensive, using a cell phone is easier and more economically viable than having landlines installed
Kenya has the most developed economy in East Africa. The country covers 569,250 sq km and its population at the end of 2000 was 30.7 million.
In 2000, the country’s GDP was estimated to reach 30.8 billion US $ (per capita GDP amounted to 1,022 US $) , and the part of the telecommunications sector in the GDP was about 1%.
By the end of 2000, there were about 9,000 TK’s public payphones installed across the country. The density of public payphones was about 0,29 public payphones per 1000 inhabitants.
Both RTO and mobile operators are planning to install public payphones. Kencell, for example, is planning to install 100 payphones in Nairobi and Mombassa, and 2,000 payphones in the country (using GSM technology) by 2005.
TK’s 8,000 public payphones are largely of Danish origin (Ascom Nordic, formerly Great Nordic Telephones – GNT) . The supply of these terminals has been largely tied to a long-term aid package from the danish government.
By the end of 1999 there were about 9,000 public payphones installed by TK. The public payphone teledensity were approximately of 0.29 public telephones per 1,000 people.
Nowadays public pay phones are provided by TK. According to their licences, the RTO have the obligation to install public payphones. The two mobile operators have recently launched fixed-wireless payphone services. Kencell uses its GSM structure and will replace coins with prepaid cards. The company is planning to install 75 payphone booths in Nairobi and Mombassa.
In 2001, TK has increased the costs of making calls from public payphones by 25%.