Safaricom wants Airtel and Telkom to settle their debts of Sh1.3 billion before they merge.
In a statement from Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph, the company is not opposed to the merger between the two mobile service operators.
They only have three concerns which they wanted the two to settle before they merge.
One of their concerns is the Sh.1.3 billion debt.
“While we are supportive of industry changes that seek to deliver greater choice and value to consumers, we have raised valid concerns that we hope the regulator will consider and address as part of the approval process.
“The first is the debt owed by the two operators, amounting to KES 1,297,448,468.88, incurred for the provision of various services including interconnection, co-location and fibre services. This debt is due and payable, based on the agreement to provide services entered into with the two entities as distinct operators,” reads the statement.
Their second concern was re-balancing of the frequencies shared by the three mobile providers.
“The second is the need to rebalance the frequencies allocation. Post-merger, AirtelTelkom will jointly hold 77.5 MHz of spectrum against a customer base of 17.3 million, compared to Safaricom’s 57.5 MHz with almost double the customer base at 31.8 million,” reads a message to Communications Authority of Kenya.
Without re-balancing of the frequencies and the two companies merge, there will be problems with the spectrum allocation which is likely to tamper with connectivity.
Their third concern was equality in the industry.
Safaricom wants equality in licencing and operations requirements.