I disagree kidogo with you, the majority of kenyas will still be on voice due to cost of devices and other challenges, though you are right that voice calls will be impacted.... About the cables on power lines Kenyans even vandalise the power cables.... but yeah TKL, KDN and other cable guys should do better.. MW and Wimax will send the prices high due to frequency costs by CCK

ERIFLOSS: I also tend to disagree with you.Some subscribers can afford data and smartphones;but there are those who don't want to access it through phones like me.Call me old school but always give me my laptop.A phone is too small a device for me to strain my eyes while trying to read/post at Wazua...

@Ali Baba, I think that we are talking about different things. Most people of course want to access the internet on a laptop- larger screen, and a keyboard. But they still want the convenience of having internet in their pocket- thus a smartphone. But what we are talking about here, is a smartphone that is simply a small computer with a Voice Over IP application that uses data, not "per-minute voice" services to transmit the audio of a phone call to and from the smartphone to any phone. Hence, there is no actual "phone" and no actual "phone call" taking place. It's computer-transmitted audio and even video! Now the program on the smartphone is properly dressed up to look and feel like a "phone" but in reality, that is just to make it easy to use.

The secret is this... that is what the telecoms are already doing. They are saving billions of shillings because they take your calls, turn them into data, and run the over the internet. That way, they can use any existing network, and not have to spend so much money on their own backhaul and interfacing with other network. They have been making tons of money off of consumers by not lowering rates a long time ago when they started taking advantage of this technology. It's like hopping in your neighbors trunk for a ride to work, for free, instead of driving and maintaining you own car. In fact, it's actually called IP trunking. And what I am talking about is individuals taking advantage of it by "trunking" their calls over their data connections, instead of over standard "phone", thus making calls virtually free as long as you have data access.

@Jamani, what if we gave it away for free?

Seriously, what if we gave away limited, low-bandwidth data access, just for casual browsing and calling, in exchange for displaying visual or audible advertisements. Do you think that's viable?

Imagine a Kenyan-developed smartphone app that lets you connect to WiFi hotspots around town for free, but you have to sit through a minute of advertising- a radio commercial- once a day. We sell the advertising to cover the costs. It would be like a giant internet cafe that made its money by selling ad space like billboards, television, and radio do. It may seem crazy, but it should be a lot cheaper than setting up a radio or TV station.

We could offer production of the spots as an incentive to advertise with us. We could use the recording studio I spoke of to record and edit the commercials.

Thoughts?

And after all that theorizing and lip service, and Bob's full blown panic and promises never to go to 1 bob or a fixed daily charge, yesterday safcon was offering unlimited on-net calls for 50/=.

Bob can run for MP, he has the attributes...say one thing, do another!