The Kenyan government is proposing an innovative model whereby a public-private partnership will build the country’s LTE infrastructure which will then be offered on an equal basis to interested service providers, including the country’s existing mobile operators. The government says the approach is designed to address a shortage of available spectrum as well as bridging the digital divide in Kenya between urban and rural communities and creating a level playing field for competition. “We have close to 19 operators lined up for this kind of service which can only accommodate three operators if we use the old model to allocate it,” explained Bitange Ndemo (pictured), the government’s information permanent secretary, to Kenya’s Business Daily. Ndemo will publish more information on the government’s plans for a public-private partnership by the end of November.

Separately, two of Portugal’s mobile operators have supported the idea that the country’s operators should build a single LTE infrastructure. Miguel Almeida, president of Optimus, said “the government [and] regulator… could even force the sharing of infrastructure… due to the very climate of recession we are experiencing,” according to Cellular News. A senior executive from Vodafone Portugal was also quoted as supporting LTE network-sharing. But market-leader (and incumbent) Portugal Telecom came down adamantly against the idea of working with its rivals. The country’s regulator will open a tender for LTE spectrum in the first quarter of next year.