Telkom Kenya Ltd., a joint venture between France Telecom SA and the Kenyan government, will become the east African nation's third mobile-phone service provider when it begins operations tomorrow.

``Telkom Kenya will address all segments of the population, but give more emphasis to small and medium enterprises as well as corporate bodies, which have not been covered sufficiently,'' Chief Executive Officer Dominique Saint-Jean said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday in the capital, Nairobi.

Telkom Kenya, previously a provider of fixed-line phone services, has invested about 6 billion shillings ($84.5 million) upgrading its infrastructure. It will compete with Safaricom Kenya Ltd., the largest operator in Kenya, and Zain Kenya Ltd., a unit of Zain, the Kuwaiti company with operations in 22 Middle Eastern and African countries.

A fourth mobile-phone company, Econet Wireless Kenya Ltd., has announced plans to begin offering services in Kenya in the second half of November.

Kenya's mobile-phone industry had 11.5 million subscribers in May 2008, compared with 900,000 in June 2002, Telkom Kenya said.

Source:bloomberg