sparkly wrote:Saf should just concentrate on data and mpesa and let airtel run itself rugged, imho as a shareholder. No need to try hanging on to dominant market share while margins and return on investment take a hit.
@Sparky, not quite...at least not for data - one major constraint in terms of increasing consumption of data is the type of device. Less than 2% of total devices in Kenya are 3G. Another 8-10% are WAP enabled or USB dongles. So that leaves abt 88-90 % of devices that cannot consume data except SMS data - but non-SMS data?
The other aspect of data is the enterprise data in which spere SCOM is well placed having offerings like 3G (for personal and SME use), WiMax (for corporate use - they can beat the daylights out of AK if they like and I suppose they are already albeit in a haphazard fashion IMHO), VPNs (by mixing their own connectivity infrastructure with other players like Jamii (metro fibre), KPLC (backhaul), KDN (backhaul), etc etc and plugging in a few gaps using VSAT, Microwave etc. By and large, mobile networks will become the de facto delivery and access network for various services (mobile commerce, mobile government, etc etc)
However, not many people see the desert for the grains of sand....
Having said that, voice remains the bulk of revenues - the only thing is that even despite increasing subscriber numbers, the revenues are not growing - if you look just at that only, it might seem like they are doomed - but they are not.