Kenya needs standards to redefine broadband services

Experience real broadband! Life will not be the same again! New Internet freedom, enjoy real broadband!

These are just some of the adverts by Internet service providers and mobile phone companies providing data services.

The problem is that even the most mediocre of services labels itself as broadband, such that the term has even lost meaning. Broadband is high-speed Internet access, contrasted with dial-up access over a modem. But that does not seem to make a difference in Kenya. You can imagine that even the poorest GPRS service is touted as broadband.

I think there should be a standard regulating what kind of service should be labeled as broadband. The Communications Commission of Kenya or some government body should be in a position to regulate and ensure that consumers are not duped into getting crappy service under the guise of broadband.

Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has ensured that only goods that comply with certain standards carry the diamond mark. The same should apply.

Whether it is the Telecommunications Providers Association or CCK, someone needs to come up with the standard.

It is no wonder that when Suhayl Esmailjee, chief operating officer at Wananchi Group was invited to comment on whether their new service was the real broadband, he chose not to label it as such. Instead, he invited the consumers to test the service.

That says a lot about the lost meaning of the term broadband.