Safricom has so far dominated the telecommunications market in East Africa’s most tech-savvy country. Kenya, which can be categorized as a fast developing market, recorded one of the highest internet penetration rates in Africa, at 42% and counting.
This makes Kenya a gold mine for companies that can provide wireless communications.
Iristel is aware of this fact, which is why it decided to venture into Kenya, having worked under Kenya’s leading telecommunications player, Safricom. The company’s entry into Kenya was legally contested by Safricom.
Nyoto Safricom behind the legal battle hinged on the allegation that Iristel Kenya will participate in SIM boxing which is a threat to national security.
However, after this debacle, Iristel will now provide services for internet-based calls through the Safaricom network.
According to star, news publications in Kenya, “Iristel’s voice services offer extensive local phone number coverage and a facility-based inbound voice origination service that enables voice service providers (OTT) and voice service providers to offer innovative voice and messaging (SMS) services to business or consumer end users.
This wholesale service aggregates all calls to Iristel-managed phone numbers and hands them off to one or more customer IP addresses. Iristel’s customers use this service to deploy next-generation flagship voice services to consumers, supplement toll-free numbers with cheaper local numbers that also provide a local touch or create new mobile or OTT applications for consumers.
Iristel CEO Samer Bishay, stated, “For the initial launch of this global expansion, we will provide the ability to purchase Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks, which can be aggregated with onnet traces, and Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs).”