Safaricom opposes Kenyan regulator’s competition rules
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The new competition rules introduced by Kenyan regulators is said to be negatively affect the biggest mobile phone company of the country, Safaricom. The company feels that regulations of price control aims to specifically target Safaricom.
Safety from the abuse of market dominance is provided by the new rules and it will also enable the Communications Commission of Kenya to determine whether tariffs are anti-competitive.
According to Chief Executive Officer of Safaricom, Michael Joseph, if Safaricom wanted to it could go into this market and distort it completely but it has not abused its dominant position by going in there and undercutting everybody in the market.
However, other telecom operators in the country like Telkom Kenya Ltd., a unit of France Telecom SA, Zain Kenya Ltd. and Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd have come in support of the rule hailing it as an attempt to monitor market segments where there’s a monopolistic situation,†and not a form of price control.
Safaricom & Huawei deploy mobile softswitch (Kenya)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Successful deployment of a next-generation advanced telecom computing architecture (ATCA) mobile softswitch has been announced by Huawei and Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom.
It was the aim of Safaricom to develop a high-quality all-IP network and the recent success is an important milestone for the operator. Safaricom would be enabled to reduce transmission costs, improve service quality, and future-proof its network by preparing for network evolution and convergence with the help of Huawei’s ATCA mobile softswitch solution.
A customer-centric approach to network management will also be offered by the solution. This approach will enable real-time monitoring, fault location and automatic recovery functions to strengthen the network’s smart IP operation.
France Telecom seeks USD385m from Kenyan government
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The first phase of negotiations over France Telecom (FT) claim for KES28.9 billion (USD385 million) submitted to the Kenyan government has ended amid secrecy. Payment has been demanded by France Telecom following complaints about Kenya’s competitive environment and a scathing attack on the market dominance enjoyed by rival operator Safaricom.
Apart from the original claim of USD385 million, an additional claim of USD300 million has also been lodged by FT on the grounds that Telkom Kenya’s former management concluded a deal with equipment supplier Rapid Communications weeks before the French took over.
This denies FT chance to negotiate a deal under whose terms it would inherit future debts.
Safaricom to test LTE later this year (Kenya)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Testing of Long Term Evolution (LTE) services on the network has been planned to be started by Safaricom which is Kenya’s largest cellco by subscribers.
According to Michael Joseph, the reason why the company is looking at testing 4G is because it is a natural technology growth from 3G to 4G. No timeframe has yet been revealed for when Safaricom hopes to start tests but it is expected to start later this year.
The company also hopes that some 4G spectrum will be obtained but there are possibilities that it might be insufficient to launch a commercial service immediately.
Vodacom South Africa to launch Mobile Money service
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The mobile money service, M-PESA will be introduced in South Africa by Vodacom and its South African banking partner. The new service will enable 26 million mobile phone subscribers in South Africa who have access to a mobile phone, but do not have or have only limited access to a bank account, to send and receive money via their mobile phones.
Vodafone developed the M-PESA service which has already been deployed by Safaricom in Kenya, Vodacom in Tanzania and Roshan in Afghanistan (branded M-Paisa).
According to Cenk Serdar, Director of Mobile Payments at Vodafone Group, the successful take-up of M-PESA in Kenya has clearly demonstrated the demand for easily accessible, secure payment services particularly in emerging markets and mobile technology in Africa has already improved the lives of millions simply by allowing them to communicate far beyond their immediate surroundings
Kenyan operators ask govt to lower 3G prices
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Due to the sustained pressure from the operators, Kenyan government is considering a reduction in the cost of 3G licenses.
Earlier on January 7, 2010 the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) had rejected calls from Telkom Kenya and Zain to lower the USD25 million fees on the grounds that Safaricom had already paid the full amount for a concession. The operators opposed the government decision on the grounds that that the current fee would prove prohibitive to the deployment of 3G services.
According to Ndemo, they will do everything possible to ensure that they have created the necessary competitive environment, even if it means that they revise the cost to reasonable levels and if they decide that they are lowering, they would have some mechanisms to ensure that Safaricom does not lose its money.
Safaricom & KPLC sign fibre-optic cable deal
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Safaricom entered into a deal with Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) to lease fibre-optic cable capacity across its national network. With this deal, the company will come on a par with backbone operators such as Telkom and Kenya Data Networks.
Under the deal, a fibre-optic pair on KPLC’s 1,500km Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) system will be operated by Safaricom as built across the national power grid.
According to Safaricom CEO, Michael Joseph, with this new fibre system, they are entering a new realm as a data carrier which will be a major complement to the massive investments made in the country’s main undersea cable ventures and will definitely be offering a better end-to-end data proposition to both retail and wholesale customers.
3G license fee remain US$25 million in Kenya
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Even after repeated requests from the mobile networks to lower the fees for 3G licenses, ¬Kenya’s telecoms regulator, the CCK, announced that the amount will remain Sh1.9 billion (US$25 million).
Even though Safaricom acquired a license in 2007 for the full fee of US$25 million in 2007, other operators feel that the price is too high for the market. If the new operators are offered the license at a lower price, Safaricom would seek a refund.
Mobile operator Zain has also applied for a license, planning a network launch in the first half of this year. Zain had 2.4 million subscribers in Kenya while Safaricom had 13.8 million subscribers at the end of June.
M-pesa agents’ recruitment method changed by Safaricom
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Removing the need to deal directly with sub- agents, Aggregator Model, a new system has been launched by Safaricom, a leading mobile phone provider, thus changing tack on its method of recruiting mobile money transfer, M-pesa agents.
As per the new model, the sub agents will be appointed by the agents on its behalf. The model will be introduced especially in the areas like Nairobi which are considered to be highly saturated by the agents. The super agents will give a float to the agents and the details are later passed on to the sub agents who will then work on agreed commissions by the agents.
Essar, a rival telecom operator, on the other hand, is set to launch money transfer service yuCash, thus eliminating the need for sub-agents altogether. Besides, it will ensure that agents get maximum commission, which it says is yet to be finalized but will be competitive.
Safaricom says that they have taken the step to protect its partnership with the existing agents. According to Safaricom chief executive Michael Joseph, existing agents have the capacity to serve Nairobi and other areas adequately. Besides, the migration of the existing sub-agents under the agency model to Aggregator has already begun.
Telkom Kenya (Orange) to conduct 3G trials
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In order to enter Kenya’s fast-growing mobile data market, a series of 3G trials will be conducted by Telkom Kenya (Orange) across its mobile network.
The number of customers of the telecom operator rose from 697,000 a year ago to 772,000, this year. The company now intends to build on this growth by investing in the budding data market and 3G presents the opportunity to achieve fast growth. Submarine cable systems like SEACOM and TEAMS, has also boosted network capacity and bandwidth availability, leading to the growth in demand for data services in Kenya.
Telkom’s rival Safaricom was first to roll out 3G services, to obtain a licence in October 2007 and to launch W CDMA-based services in 2008. Safaricom also announced an increase by 93.6% over the year that ended 30 September 2009, with internet representing 17.7% of its revenues.
Zain Kenya followed suit in October 2009 and purchased its own USD25 million 3G concession in preparation for a network rollout.
