According to a post on IT News Africa, Zain Kenya – the second leading mobile service provider in Kenya after Safaricom – is finally set to roll out a 3G service:

Kenyan mobile operator Zain plans to launch a 3G service in July this year reports the Economic Times.
Zain has been pushing for lower license fees to enable them launch 3G in the country as voice revenue continue to decline in the East African region.“We are planning to roll out 3G services in July 2010. We expect the regulator to announce new spectrum costs for 3G during the first week of June which are going to be substantially lower than the current $25 million,” Rene Meza told Reuters by phone.

“That will obviously allow all mobile operators to be able to roll out 3G services in Kenya and increase Internet penetration in the country.”
The Kenyan government, through a senior official, has also revealed plans to cut license fees for 3G telecom services for smaller mobile service providers to help them compete.

This is definitely set to affect the mobile internet landscape in Kenya in some ways. Most Kenyans will probably want to see better pricing for 3G. Most Kenyans sentiment is that Safaricom’s 3G product is fairly highly priced and if Zain could introduce similar quality services at a lower price range then we could see a shift among consumers. Even more interesting would be to know what Safaricom will pull up their sleeves to counter any attempts at Zain capturing part of Safaricoms data service consumer base. In general, however, this is a good thing for internet service provision in Kenya, more competition should hopefully push for better service at relatively lower pricing.