Guys very good insights, and no arguments about the idiot.

@mukiha, Okoa Jahazi is very cheap if it saves you when your stuck; same with an Equity Loan if they are the only bank that values you enough to give one to you. My take was Safaricom was cheapest at the time, because I could choose to speak for 30 secs.

I actually had both lines at the time and credit always ran out of the Kencell line faster. Even Kencell's eventual switch to per second billing must mean something.

But we also need to move beyond money and look at the brand. At a certain level, human beings are aspirational - Safaricom, the peoples option Kencell, pink is the colour of clarity
Come to think of it, the idiot's company is very aspirational. There's even a song about the coffee... That's why the most handsome/beautiful person in the world is often your child.


@mwenza, have you seen the queues in Equity? But the customers do not want to go anywhere else

>> If mukiha statement on scom and kencell prices is true, them scom won the market through psychological tactics . scom divided the market into social classes, and made people to believe that kencell was meant for guys from upmarket leafy neighborhoods and scom for the middle class and low class. Having a kencell line was like for prestige, for high class guys, and scom for mwananchi....Yu and Orange are coming in through the same strategy, and safaricom is now perceived as the expensive network, a re alignment is in order.

By the way, whats the status of the whole number portability thing? There was some noise about this then it went quite. Ama kuna mtu alilipwa? Coz to me this is the game changer.

I have heard people say that this number portability thingie is what will sink Safaricom. I disagree. People are very conservative when it comes to changing items - like phone numbers and bank accounts - that have an emotional value to them. (For instance, research done in the US recently showed that an American is more likely to get divorced than to change his/her bank account). Number portability has not caused a significant increase in churn in areas where it has been introduced. Plus Safaricom has been working pretty hard to ensure customers stay loyal - one reason they introduced M-PESA and now they are revamping their customer service.