1) Equity has banking agents who can easily be converted to MVNO agents. These are the LOW HANGING fruits.
2) Equity can help finance float which has been an issue for many Safcom agents in the past.
3) Voice is NOT a priority for Equity. Nor is income/revenue from data [surfing]. It's the transfer fees.
4) Equity wants to keep the money in-house. There are BILLIONS held by customers within M-Pesa and M-Shwari at CBA. These funds can be re-deployed to Equity at low cost [low interest]. And this amount will grow.
5) Airtel [& Equity] is in all EAC [Burundi?] countries & it can help Equity transact across borders earning Equity Transaction Fees AND Forex Margin/Spread Income.
6) Quick loans [M-Shwari] at 1-2% per month! That beats 7.5% charged by CBA/Safaricom and yet getting 12-24% is not a bad deal for Equity.

For Equity this is about ADDITIONAL income... which it did not have in 2013 but will in 2014 and beyond.

Data is link not necessarily for internet access but to enable two way communication of device/phone with EQTY/Airtel. Came about in a likely scenario where entrepreneurs have opportunity to introduce devices that do not have voice capabilities but can do mobile transactions perfectly. If these devices have simple & secure interface enough for the masses to adapt to fast enough, the meteoric rise in adoption would be quite profitable to the entrepreneur(s).

Safaricom has about 18 million customers now this is 10 million more customers than Equity.It will not be a walk in the park to get over Mpesa Equity had previously partnered with Orange on Orange money which failed miserably moblie customers will not be easily swayed to change their peculiar habits .

It's all fun and games until Equity effectively requires all personal payments and transactions by customers which are worth below 25k to be done by phone and equity agents hence do away with queues in their bank halls.
..plus you don't need to use your mpesa account for this.

I don't think they want to "steal" Safaricom's customers.Maybe...just maybe...they want to de-congest their banking halls & make money from that.They could basically ensure that in 5 years you don't need to visit a bank branch for anything.All transactions can be done on your phone & at Equity agencies....while still making money from:
(1)Your savings
(2)Your loans (interest)
(3)From non-banking hall channels(with no mpesa involved).
They will greatly reduce operation costs from that too.