Extracts taken from KWAMCHETSI MAKOKHA

If just about anybody were to speak on the telephone for a shilling a minute, as has been decided by Bharti Airtel, Kenya would become the biggest chattering country outside a monkey house.
Companies that refuse to make money off voice calls and instead seek to sell a range of services and create relationships live in a bad country called Utopia. In such places, they even offer free calls.
This is what Airtel is trying to do in Kenya — turn this republic into a cheap unrealistic country where things are free.
Companies are formed solely to make profit in the shortest time possible. Those that sink money into Kenya and wait long periods to reap the gains are only using the country as a testing ground for cynical economic experiments.
Their irresponsible behaviour can force honest businesses that sue profit through the quickest route and reward their shareholders to cut costs. They would no longer have the largesse to edge out the beer manufacturers from television and newspaper advertising
And worse could follow. Some of the mobile phone operators would close, leading to massive unemployment – of up to 3,000 people for Safaricom. There would be a graduate at every closed shop corner the following evening, waiting to mug you
Cheapskates who want to enjoy top-of-the-range services are only keen on sending the economy into a coma. That is why Safaricom’s bosses would rather die than reduce the cost of calling to Sh1 a minute.

By MACHARIA KAMAU
BUSINESS REPORTER

Were Airtel Kenya customers duped on the recently launched product, Feelanga Free?

Fresh details are now emerging from industry regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), which the mobile operator failed to make full disclosure about its latest Sh1 a minute on-net offer to subscribers.

CCK argues that Airtel had misled consumers to believing that Feelanga Free offer was a permanent tariff, when in fact it was a promotional tariff. The regulator has now instructed the operator to issue communication to the public to clarify the issue.

Jamani aka Muganda , please stop this propaganda war against airtel. We are enjoying as the 'promotion' last.
Tell your boss , bob callingless that it is no longer business as usual.
Time of ripping my pockets to brag of billions of immoral profits is over.

Airtel endelea hivyo, tunaendela kujienjoy as we watch the Dinosaur fall.

As long as my pocket is smiling i don't give a damn whether the promotion last's one day or one week. Who says they cant make it permanent after the promotion ends? Maybe they are testing the waters to see how kenyans receive it

All, firstly, "phone" as a technology is dead anyway. Data is what is important. And it doesn't take much data to make "voice calls". So any way that you slice it, the price of voice calls will inevitably crash. In 36 months Kenyans will be using internet-connected FREE voice-over IP calling over paid-for data almost exclusively. Skype anyone? MagicJack? Google Talk?

Secondly, the GoK knows that free markets are far more important than the performance of any one stock. If you start controlling prices too much, outside investors get scared, and you loose a lot more money than just the revenues on phone tariffs and shares held. Thirdly, for all the SafCom "worshippers": IT'S JUST A PHONE COMPANY!

And by global standards, not an exemplary one. They just can't seem to get their arms around the data market. Even Collymore seemed shocked at the amount of praised heaped upon SafCom and Mike Joseph by Kenyans, and seems shaken by cable vandalism. Cables? I wouldn't let vandals shake me at all. I'd fly way above their heads with microwave transmitters and WiMax. I'd bury the cable 30 feet deep if I had to. Or raise the fiber up on power-poles! I would let NOTHING stop me from winning the telecom war!

Does Bob want it bad enough???

I understand that SafCom was one of the first and few examples of its kind, but it's just the beginning. Many FULLY KENYAN enterprises are yet to be built, and soon.

The game has changed.