@Jaguar..

I know its difficult for you to see it...

But tell me, why else would the small potatoes be cheering on the particular rule that @Brewer has expounded on.


Bwana soma the rules kwanza.. the moment you start relying on Capital FM presenters to interpret them for you...

Check this out:
"(3) A licensee shall not apply tariffs that prevent market entry or distort competition" -
- By whose interpretation?? So if Safcom reduces its cross-network tariffs to say 4.90, will they be in contravention? Will they not be "distorting competition"?

and what the hell is this?
"(8) A dominant telecommunications service provider shall comply with guidelines that relate to regulated services that are issued by the Commission."
"(2) The obligations that relate to the provision of a regulated service shall cease when a licensee ceases to be dominant or the market or the market segment becomes competitive."

Why NOT apply the rules uniformly??

@Mozenrat -

1) Its not the first time we are seeing this - recall EABL and Keroche - I think it all boils down to the same thing. Neither Kingfisher or I can get Summit but we WANT Summit. So is it brand loyalty when I drink a Tusker at Tamambos/Psys/Rezourous? We know that behind the scenes EABL plays hardball with bar owners and distris. True or not. Nor sure what is contradictory - Yu can offer a flat rate across networks but we do not know what interconnection rates they have with SCOM. And out of the 10 people I know with SCOM lines, the lowest they have ever paid for Super Ongea is Kshs 6.

2)No - it has. It knows that 80% of traffic terminates within its network.

3) "but people still stick with Mathrees even where the minibus option exists" - yes they do. And before Michuki, they were packed into vehicles like cargo and subjected to abuse. Could citizens on their own as individuals taken on the matatu sector?

@mukiha - let's remember that 1) the partial privatisation of Safaricom was not kosher to start with - there was no laid down process other than the KCA had been amended to allow for competition in the sector and Kenya had made commitments to WTO to open up the sector from 1999. 2) Not meaning to be a consipracy theorist, but the issue of the 5% Mobitelea has never really been made clear 3) up until the IPO, the govt owned 60% of Safaricom - to allow CCK to shed its milk teeth and grow real chompers in terms of making sure Safaricom meets its licence obligations (mainly Quality of Service) - it would be shooting itself in the foot don't you think? Right now it has divested 25% and after the IPO raked in considerable money. For an outfit that started off with 9000 subscribers, I think GOK has made its money (just as it has with Telkom - I don;t think they really care abt the 49% in TKL) and is now ready to allow CCK to grow teeth.

If I may touch on INDEPENDENT regulation and not relating to SCOM but to TKL (and from this infer that CCK at the time was only allowed to bark but not bite) ...some of you may recall a certain kerfuffle about incoming international traffic being terminated illegally to a private operator based at Lonrho House - that issue was swept under the carpet. The commissioner who made the bust was suspended and later re-instated. Shortly after, to the amazement of many, the "poacher" and the "game keeper" we swapped. I think that instance alone (plus many other that have never come to light since this is a multi billion shilling industry) have set a precedent and I think Charles Njoroge has his head screwed on properly and will seek to turn that tide. Some of the ills date back to before Raphael Tuju being the Minister of Information...

One final piece of pabulum - lets also remember that after KPTC was unbundled - Safaricom got most of the staff in terms of technical staff, legal staff (KPTC was the sector regulator) - and as such carried to itself some cronyism if you like - such that those regulating, knew those operating....


Now that the govt (via TKL) has no interests in SCOM and TKL itself too has 51% foisted upon France Telecom - the road is much more clear for independent regulation that will protect - no string

Blame this lack of information, on a blackout in our area.

What was in the news regarding this?