Airtel Kenya to launch 3G in 1Q11
Airtel Kenya (formerly Zain Kenya) has announced that it will launch its own 3G network in the first quarter of 2011.
According to Airtel Kenya managing director Rene Meza, the company has finalized planning for 3G and expects to have the services launched at the end of the first quarter, which will change mobile telephony in the country’.
As per Jayant Khosla, CEO of Airtel Africa, the company’s immediate goal is to grow the customer base which we intend to achieve by retaining the low tariff charges, focusing on potential customers at the bottom of the pyramid and providing more additional services to the existing services. In a presentation in Nairobi, Khosla stated that Airtel Africa plans to double its subscriber base to 100 million within two years, and return to profitability.
Price Cuts by Kenyan operators may shrink Investment: Ndemo
According to the Communication Ministry Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo, price cuts by Kenyan mobile-phone operators are too deep and are resulting in revenue losses which can curb investment in the industry.
In a move to challenge the market leaders Safaricom that controls 80% of the market share in country, Zain Kenya (Bharti Airtel Ltd.) reduced the calling rates for all domestic networks by half to 4 cents per minute last month. After Airtel’s strong move to gain the price leadership, the incumbent ‘Safaricom’ announced a month long promotion offering further lowered call charges. The Nairobi-based Company now announced cheaper text-message fees for its subscribers.
According to Ndemo, Mobile-phone operators should not have cut in so deeply. It will cut into their profits for investment.
The price battle began when Communications Commission of Kenya announced it has cut the prices by half the fee operators charge to carry cross-network traffic.
As per the regulator, the number of mobile-phone subscribers in Kenya increased 2.7% to 19.9 million by the end of June, compared with the last quarter.
Zain Kenya plans 3G launch for July
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Third generation (3G) network has been planned to be rolled out by Zain Kenya, in July, following an expected cut in license fees by the regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).
The company is expecting 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 USD25 million.
Sh3.7b pledged by Zain to fund Kenya
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: More than Sh3.7 billion will be spent by Zain Kenya to fund business ventures in the Kenya. The investment will help to spur the economic growth of the company in line with the company’s vision of empowering people to achieve their economic aspirations and foster development.
The company has also decided to spend a further Sh14.8 million to improve infrastructure in selected schools. 50 free mobile handsets have been donated to fishermen by company’s Managing Director Rene Meza to support to KMFRI’s project Enhanced Fish Market Information Service.
The fishermen would access prices and market of their products through a short text messaging system under the Sh6.2 million project funded by the International Labour Organisation. More than 40, 000 fishermen around Lake Victoria basin can enhance fish trade by accessing communication technology.
Scratch card worth $0.31 for Zain’s Customers (Kenya)
To counter the stiff competition existed in Kenya Mobile market, new Managing Director of Zain kenya, Rene Meza, has adopted a strategy for competing with Safaricom on its own terms.
Zain has set to launch a low-end scratch card worth $0.31. Basically this card is to beat with Safaricom’s “Bamba 20,” which was launched few months ago. The new Zain card targets rural dwellers as well as youth, Meza said. Zain is further realigning its scratch card denominations by replacing the 40 shilling scratch card with a 50 shillings card, while 200 and 300 shillings cards have been replaced by one worth 250 shillings.
Now Zain cutomers can even add credit to their phones for as little as one shilling through their electronic voucher distribution system.
