Nairobi, Jan. 17 -- The government plans to deploy an internal communication platform, JamboTel, to ease information flow among its agencies and departments and reduce costs, potentially cutting an important revenue stream for telecommunication firms in the country.

The National Treasury has disclosed that the rollout will happen once the State completes laying its backbone fibre optic cable, which is expected to link every public institution and office to the internet.

JamboTel will be a voice-over-internet (VoIP) platform, allowing State officers to communicate freely without incurring airtime costs, a move that could save the government billions of shillings annually in communication expenses.

VoIP is a technology that allows users ...