Telkom Kenya is banking on cellular technology to help it curb cases of vandalism that costs millions in losses each year. It is an ambitious scheme that will see Telkom install wireless CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) lines countrywide by September 2008. No figures were given on the cost of the investment. However, the three-phase project that kicks off in July will see 400,000 wireless lines available countrywide by September next year.

CDMA gives uses simultaneous access to a radio frequency or spectrum over a wide bandwidth and can deliver sound and pictures of television quality. All CDMA users are assigned their own codes, and the capacity of the system is such that one frequency can handle hundreds of calls and data at the same time. Like any cellular system, CDMA divides a geographic region into cells with a mobile unit in each cell communicating with a base station.

The corporation’s chief sales and marketing officer, Bernard Rubia, said last week that the maiden phase of the project would kick off in Nairobi, with some 20,000 wireless lines listed for installation. According to the blueprint, the second phase of the project, dubbed “Metro”, would then come up in September, and target the coastal town of Mombasa, where 250,000 wireless lines are expected to be installed. Areas left out of the Nairobi programme would also be incorporated in the Metro project phase. Rubia said that an additional 120,000 wireless lines would, however, be installed later next year under a special rural telephony project.